CJ Verdell Out for the Season With Injury

Oregon running back CJ Verdell's season is done, Head Coach Mario Cristobal told reporters Thursday.

"CJ will be done for the year," Cristobal said. "He was really having his most physical game I think. The way he was running and really getting downhill, running behind his pads."

During the 2021 season, Verdell ran for 406 yards on 78 carries and six touchdowns, averaging 5.21 yards per carry. At the time of his injury against Stanford, he had run for 63 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries and caught one pass for 13 yards.

In that same game he passed Jonathan Stewart for fifth on Oregon's all-time career rushing leaderboard with 2,929 rushing yards, while also notching his 27th career rushing touchdown, tying Stewart for seventh all-time at Oregon. 

With Thursday's news on the severity of Verdell's injury, the staff now has to look at how they will fill yet another void during the injury-plagued 2021 season.

The Ducks have a lot of talent behind Verdell, with Travis Dye being the biggest name to know, as the two functioned as a 1A and 1B duo. Dye is one of the most versatile and complete backs in the country, but the names behind him are largely unproven and inexperienced. 

Trey Benson is the largest back on the roster, listed at 6'1", 215 pounds, with true freshman Byron Cardwell right on his heels at 6'0, 210 pounds. Benson saw some snaps against Stony Brook, and Cardwell got a few carries against the Cardinal following Verdell's injury. 

It makes sense to reason that the staff would like to pair Dye with one of these larger backs for a thunder and lightning type of attack, although they could choose to make Dye their bell-cow back. 

The wildcard in all of this is Sean Dollars, a redshirt freshman running back who earned All-American status as a blue-chip recruit from national powerhouse Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif. He has flashed in very limited snaps since arriving in Eugene, playing in all seven games in 2020, but only recorded eight carries for 47 yards.

Cristobal said Dollars suffered a "pretty significant" leg injury at the start of spring football, which led to him missing all of summer workouts and fall camp, but the team hopes to have him back mid-season.