A year after injuries depleted Oregon's wide receiver corps and drained even its offensive coordinator's preseason confidence, the Ducks' wideouts might now be the single-biggest reason for offensive optimism entering the 2015 season.

Among 126 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, only Oregon can boast four returning receivers who gained at least 600 receiving yards the previous season. That figure doesn't account for Bralon Addison, either, whose 890 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore in 2013 set the stage for an even more productive encore before a knee injury kept him sidelined all of 2014.

How effectively Oregon replaces a Heisman Trophy quarterback's production and then protects Marcus Mariota's successor after losing the entire left side of its offensive line remain two looming questions.

The receivers, however, are no longer a concern, coming a long way since coordinator Scott Frost spent his 2014 summer "freaking out about the wide receiver spot," he acknowledged late last season before the Rose Bowl.

But even in a unit with plenty of confidence and the stats to back it up, position coach Matt Lubick's unit received a noted vote of confidence this week when analyst Phil Steele ranked Oregon's receivers the country's best. The ranking is part of Steele's annual preview magazine, which is in stores July 1 but has been released online starting this week.

"Almost everyone in the 3-deep is a (very highly touted player)," he wrote, adding that a dozen Ducks were ranked among his top 30 at the position coming out of high school.

Per Steele, Oregon's wideouts were the "clear No. 1 this year."

One can't help imagining graduated receiver Keanon Lowe smiling at the notion. Last August, with Oregon's wideouts still unproven, Lowe was prescient with a bold prediction.

"I think we can be one of the best, if not the best, receiving corps in the country," Lowe said at the time.

Behind Oregon, Steele ranked Baylor, Clemson, Texas A&M, Cal, Notre Dame, UCLA, Ohio State, TCU and Ole Miss in his top 10.

Last season Byron Marshall earned 1,003 receiving yards after being converted from running back, Darren Carrington had 704 yards, Devon Allen had 684 yards and Dwayne Stanford gained 639 yards. The foursome combined for 23 touchdowns and solid perimeter blocking, which is valued as much within the UO offense as receptions.

Even with status of Carrington (facing a possible half-season NCAA suspension for reportedly failing a drug test) and Allen (recovering from ACL surgery) still uncertain for the first weeks of the season the Ducks broke spring practices in May confident in the depth should they be without one, or both, of the sophomores-to-be in 2015.

Two reasons contributed to that feeling: True freshman Alex Ofodile and redshirt freshman Jalen Brown. Ofodile, rated the 12th-best receiver in the 2015 class by 247Sports, participated in spring practices to get a jump on the learning curve, while Brown has recovered from a back injury suffered last fall to show glimpses of the four-star talent who also enrolled early in 2014.

Even as Brown rehabilitated his injury last fall, Lubick called him a possible "four-year starter."

The Ducks might want to knock on wood about Steele's best-in-the-country projection, however. Entering the 2014 season he ranked Oregon's offensive line No. 1 in his preseason magazine's position rankings. And while Oregon went on to win its ninth consecutive Pac-12 rushing title anyway, it did so while becoming one of the most snakebit units in the country; injuries forced UO to spackle together eight different starting combinations in 15 games.

Yet for all of Oregon's perceived receiving depth, it will never come close to the advantage one team ranked behind it possesses: girth.

Baylor's receivers "can stretch the field as always," Steele wrote. "They also have a 410-lb tight end!"

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

503-221-8100

@andrewgreif

H/t to Twitter user @joeytunes2.