There might not have been a bigger surprise for Oregon during the postseason than tight end Evan Baylis.

Through the first half of 2014, he didn’t catch a single pass. Through the second half of the season, he only caught four total. The most mention he got was after the Utah game, when starting tight end Pharaoh Brown went down with a season-ending injury and the Ducks turned to Baylis.

After surprising Florida State and Ohio State with a combined 11 catches, Oregon tight end Evan Baylis won't sneak up on anyone in 2015. Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports

But even then, there weren’t many hints that he was anything more than a blocking tight end (which, considering his six catches for 73 yards in the Rose Bowl, probably the extent of Florida State’s scouting report on him). But Oregon knew it had a player who could expose some defenses when using both his size and his pass-catching abilities.

“A lot of times those don’t go hand in hand,” Oregon passing game coordinator Matt Lubick said. “There are a lot of guys out there who can catch the ball and run routes, but to find a guy who can be as physical as we need him to be at the point of attack and still catch the ball -- that’s hard.”

But even so, Baylis followed up that Rose Bowl performance with five catches -- the second-most of any Oregon player against Ohio State -- in the national title game. His 11 postseason catches were the most for any tight end last year. (To be fair, most tight ends who played in the postseason only played in one game, but even Baylis' single-game statistics against either Florida State or Ohio State would have put him in third or fourth, respectively.)

Baylis has spent this offseason trying to make sure he turns what was basically 15 minutes of fame into an entire season of effective play for the Ducks.

He said he was a bit banged up during the 2014 offseason, so he had to spend part of last season getting back into shape, which kept him from going 100 percent on every single snap. Now, at 255 pounds and after spending the offseason working on conditioning, he feels like he’s at a point where he will be able to run full-go on every snap.

His arrival is a very good thing for the Ducks in a similar way that wide receiver Byron Marshall’s was during last season. Any time Lubick can field a player who can do more than just catch passes (in Marshall’s case it’s running; in Baylis’ case it’s blocking), it forces defenses to play a bit more honestly because they aren’t 100 percent sure how to match up with the Ducks’ personnel.

“You don’t get predictable,” Lubick said. “When [Baylis] is in there, you can’t always think, ‘It’s a run to his side.’ When he’s in there, we have the ability of running our complete offense, whether it’s splitting him out and calling our complete pass game or having him attached and being able to run all of our run plays in addition to calling our pass game.”

After starring in two of the biggest games of the 2014 season, Baylis is far from a surprise and he’ll be noted on every scouting report for every Oregon opponent this season.

That’ll certainly be a big change for Baylis, but he says the biggest difference in 2015 is that he’s “coming in ready to go.” So while he won’t be catching any defenses off guard, a more fit and conditioned Baylis still could have some tricks up his sleeve.