Safety Peyton Woodyard Transfers to Big Ten-Bound Oregon

© Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

Peyton Woodyard commits to the Oregon Ducks after spending a few months of his freshman season with Alabama. Woodyard can give the Ducks four long years of production as he still reserves all four years of eligibility.

Who Is Peyton Woodyard

Peyton Woodyard is a 6-foot-2, 188-pound safety who spent his high school career at St. John Bosco in California. During his recruiting process, he was listed as a four-star safety and was the eighth-ranked safety in the state of California.

Out of high school, Woodyard flipped his commitment from Georgia to the Alabama Crimson Tide where he spent only a few months before entering the transfer portal. Throughout his lone season with the Tide Woodyard never recorded any statistics as he never got playing time as a freshman.

What Impact Does This Commitment Bring the Ducks

This commitment gives Oregon and coach Dan Lanning the second-ranked transfer portal class of the 2024 cycle according to 247Sports. Woodyard makes the third three-star safety to commit from a Power Four school. The Ducks are replacing three safeties who left the school via the transfer portal. These include four-star Kodi DeCambra, three-star Daymon David (now with Akron) and three-star Bryan Addison (now with UCLA).

How Quickly Can Peyton Woodyard Contribute

Oregon has a very young and talented safety room for the foreseeable future. With only two seniors at the position, there are several young and hungry Ducks for Woodyard to compete with for starting reps. With no collegiate experience, this could leave him a step behind guys like Kobe Savage who has plenty of on-field experience at the power four level thanks to his time at Kansas State.

Defensive Coordinator Tosh Lupoi and Safeties coach Chris Hampton hope to see Woodyard's upside sooner rather than later. He could easily be an All-Big Ten candidate when he plays to his potential. However, it could take a year or so to reach the full potential being talked about.

Woodyard is a great addition but won't be an immediate game-changer because veterans like Tysheem Johnson and Savage are firmly in front of him.

Scouting Peyton Woodyard

Woodyard is a shifty, fast-paced safety who plays bigger than his 6-foot-2 frame. He regularly plays at all levels on the defense effectively. He can play near the line of scrimmage, moving down to interrupt short passes and to rush the quarterback. Woodyard can also play deep to disrupt anything over the top.

He has a ton of football IQ and can determine where he needs to be pre-snap and has the athleticism to get there.

He shows the ability to cover halfbacks and tight ends as well as his main task, the wideouts. However, he isn't fast enough to cover some of the backs and wideouts one-on-one as he doesn't have that freak athleticism you wish for.