Nick Pickett

Oregon Ducks 3-star safety commit Nick Pickett

(Courtesy of Nick Pickett)

Silent commitments.

There are rumors about them every year, particularly as Signing Day nears, but the Oregon Ducks 2017 recruiting class seems particularly adamant that at least one silent pledge is in the fold behind the scenes.

Rumored for weeks, Rivals three-star athlete Nick Pickett became the latest Oregon commit to publicly confirm rumors of a silent commit on social media.

"Most of the time, it's just a commitment between them and the coaches," he said. "They may have a commitment date, but it's just not public yet."

Before addressing those rumors, however, Pickett solidified his own commitment, announcing that he was ending any future recruiting conversations with other schools and was solid to Oregon.

"It was pretty much just the coaches and other athletes, knowing that I'm going to get to play with them as well," he said.

Using the social media tool "Curious Cat" on Twitter, an anonymous fan asked the 6-foot, 180-pound safety, out of Salesian High School (Los Angeles, California), if Oregon had any silent commits.

Having been asked about the rumor several times, Pickett was (again) willing to weigh in with a clear response.

you know any silent commits — Yes https://t.co/C2YflB0ucg — NiccP👍🏽 (@NLMBNICC) January 16, 2017

Much speculation exists that Pickett is referring to U.S. Army All-American cornerback and high school teammate Deommodore Lenoir, but Pickett made it clear that he believes the Ducks have a "secret pledge" who isn't his teammate.

You know any silent commits not named lenoir lol!!!!!! — Yeah https://t.co/OJIxkeTIOs — NiccP👍🏽 (@NLMBNICC) January 16, 2017

As for the Oregon commit's certainty that a silent commit exists and will end up at Oregon?

How confident are you this "silent commit" ends up ... — He's going for sure https://t.co/sgsLWl5rg8 — NiccP👍🏽 (@NLMBNICC) January 16, 2017

Pickett, who confirmed Sunday evening that he knows of at least two silent commits for the Ducks, is hardly the first Oregon recruit to hint that the program has another commitment that hasn't yet been made public.

Earlier this month, Rivals four-star athlete Bruce Judson Jr. also said that he knows of more than one silent commit for Oregon, and made it clear he is not among them.

But who could they be?

Outside of Lenoir, the prime suspects are former South Florida pledge Demetri Burch, who is set to announce between Oregon and South Florida on Signing Day, former Miami (Fla.) safety pledge Billy Gibson, who seems to be heavily favoring Oregon since he received an offer from Taggart, and Under Armour All-American tight end Josh Falo.

With just 14 known commitments in the class of 2017, Oregon has a lot of work to do before Signing Day.

However, that workload may be significantly diminished behind closed doors.

-- Andrew Nemec

anemec@oregonian.com

@AndrewNemec