Dante Moore’s return to Oregon Ducks says as much about his NFL future as any combine drill ever could | Bill Oram

Funny, isn’t it?

By resisting the seductive pull of the NFL, Dante Moore showed how ready he truly is for the pros.

You want maturity at quarterback?

You’ll find it at Oregon next year.

You want professionalism, intelligence and poise, packaged with a portfolio of All-Pro indicators that makes NFL talent evaluators salivate?

Look no further than Eugene.

I learned all I need to know about Moore as a leader when he revealed Wednesday that he will return for a third season with the Ducks rather than take the assured riches of becoming a high NFL draft pick in April.

That told me more than any Wonderlic test, group interview or passing drill at the NFL scouting combine ever could.

It’s the smart choice.

It’s not the easy one.

Following the Ducks 56-22 College Football Playoff semifinal loss against Indiana last week — Moore’s worst game since he started as an overmatched freshman at UCLA two years ago — I wrote that Moore would be wise to follow the model set by Marcus Mariota, Justin Herbert and Bo Nix and tell the NFL to wait for another year.

I said that and believed it but was fully prepared for Moore to make the jump anyway.

Have you ever rejected $45 million?

Moore is betting on himself and giving the Ducks a shot at redemption next year, as well. With Moore back to lead a team that is also returning its entire defensive line and starters on both sides of the ball, Oregon will be among the CFP favorites once again.

But while this may be packaged as Moore having unfinished business at Oregon, the driving factor here is timing the jump to the pro ranks.

Moore is strategic like that, or at least listens to people who are. After all, he had the wisdom to transfer from UCLA to Oregon knowing he would need to wait behind Dillon Gabriel for a season.

Who does that?

In a sport that is increasingly about instant gratification, and features transferring multiple time in search of playing time, it was just as surprising to see a quarterback already starting at a major program transfer with an intention to sit as it is to see a likely top-five pick choose to return to campus.

But that’s Moore.

And, perhaps, it is Dylan Raiola. Nebraska’s quarterback for the past two years, Raiola signed with Oregon this week, despite the possibility (or likelihood?) that Moore would return. The former five-star recruit is expected to take a Dantean gap year after struggling with the Cornhuskers.

Raiola watched Moore for a year and essentially declared, “I’ll have what he’s having.”

ON ESPN’s SportsCenter, where he announced his decision, Moore said, “Mainly all my life has just been about being as most prepared as I can for any situation I go into.”

College football stars, especially quarterbacks, are in position to earn millions of dollars. The urgency to get to the NFL has been significantly mitigated by name, image and likeness deals and revenue sharing. That’s especially true when Phil Knight is involved.

Rather than jump to the NFL at the earliest possible moment, the goal now should be to go at the right moment.

Yes, the fact that the New York Jets — notorious killers of football dreams — are the holders of the No. 2 pick likely had something to do with Moore’s laudable patience.

But this would have been the right choice regardless of where he was likely to end up.

Moore is not merely trying to get to the NFL — he is trying to stay there.

I thought former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, now at ESPN, said it best on air after the Peach Bowl. He stressed that a team drafting Moore would need to understand that he has the tools to be a star, but would be coming in as a project, not a ready-made starter.

The NFL is not a developmental league. It’s sink-or-swim and there is little mercy if you start to slip below the surface. Being a high draft pick is hardly a guarantee of professional success.

Ask Blake Bortles, Mitch Trubisky and Trey Lance. Ask Akili Smith.

Ask Leo Tolstoy, author of “War and Peace,” who wrote, “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”

Moore’s performance in the Peach Bowl showed just how much room he has to grow. No, his three turnovers in the first half of that brutal outing do not encapsulate his capabilities any more than did his four touchdowns against James Madison.

He is, as is any 20-year-old in any field or area of study, a work in progress.

The burden is now on him to top the year he just had with the Ducks, when he threw for 2,500 yards and 30 touchdowns and got his team to football’s final four. To play even better in his second full year as Oregon’s starter — under a new offensive coordinator, no less — than he did in his first.

Knowing that there will be plenty of people ready to pounce and second-guess his decision will be a heck of a motivator.

He is taking the risk of injury or regression and wagering it in favor of a greater, longer lasting reward.

By the time the 2027 draft rolls around, I suspect that will be just as impressed by that as anything Moore can do on the field.