Nasir Wyatt outgrew his old body. Now he is set him to outgrow the third-down label

At some point this offseason, Nasir Wyatt realized his wardrobe was becoming a problem.

The jeans stopped fitting. Then some of the replacement clothes stopped fitting. Wyatt kept buying sweats and shorts while giving some of what he had outgrown to smaller teammates. It could have been an inconvenience, but Wyatt viewed it as something closer to evidence.

“It makes me happy because I know that I’m growing and my body is filling out,” Wyatt said at Oregon Media Day. “So just to have that thing on me, like, ‘Oh, I got to buy more clothes,’ it’s kind of like an accomplishment.”

The changing wardrobe is a funny detail attached to a considerably more important transformation. Wyatt arrived at Oregon as a twitchy edge player capable of creating immediate problems as a pass rusher. As a freshman, that skill allowed the Ducks to place him into situations where the assignment could be relatively uncomplicated: get off the ball, attack the quarterback and let the athleticism that made him one of the more intriguing young defenders on the roster take over.

Year 2 is asking for something different.

Wyatt has added more than 20 pounds. He has spent the offseason studying first and second down rather than obsessing almost exclusively over third. He is thinking more deliberately about quarterbacks, formations, gap responsibility and how his rush fits within Oregon’s entire defensive front. Most importantly, he has identified the part of his game that could determine whether he remains an exciting situational pass rusher or becomes something much more valuable.

“I just want to be able to evaporate the C gap and still be able to attack the passer as much as I can,” Wyatt said, “just to be an all-around edge rusher.”

Chris Hampton is watching the same transformation.