Oregon Ducks quarterback Dante Moore is as blue-chip as they come, in terms of NFL Draft prospects. The Detroit native is a leading Heisman trophy candidate, and top three on almost every NFL Draft big board. If you don’t think Arch Manning will be the first QB off the boards in April, then most likely you think it’s going to be Moore.
When it was made official that Dante was returning to the team this year (when he easily could have entered the 2026 draft), he was celebrated for his leadership and on-field prowess, boosting team morale significantly.
Dante’s Inferno
Moore has nothing to prove this year, as Oregon outside linebacker Teitum Tuioti pointed out.
“I don’t think he has to prove anything,” Tuitoti said in an exclusive with Ratings.org. “I think he (just) has to be himself. Dante’s a great leader, a great player, and he’s a great brother to all of us.
He does a great job of one connecting with everyone, finding ways to to bring everyone together. But he also has a side to him where he can demand this team, make sure we’re going in the right direction.”
Moore spent the 2024 season as the understudy to Dillon Gabriel, and it paid off with a monster 2025 season that put him on everybody’s Heisman and draft radar.
“And obviously, his play on the field speaks for itself,” Tuioti continued. “Dante’s a great player, but overall, you put all those things together, man, he’s unstoppable.”
While he seems unstoppable on the football field, Dante Moore is a human, just like the rest of us, who sometimes struggles with mental health issues.
He’s publicly shared his personal battle with depression, amidst the overwhelming pressure of playing college football as an 18-year-old freshman at UCLA in 2023.
At the same time, he faced the emotional toll of watching his mother undergo chemotherapy as she was battling breast cancer.
Moore has done PSAs to help raise mental health awareness, and written to Oregon governor Tina Kotek, with a plea for support for mental health services in the state.
“Mental health is huge,” Moore said at Big Ten Media Days. “I kind of feel like mental health is everything. with me just being able to be an advocate and reach out, of course, give the community what they need.
“Because I’m not going to be someone that will hold my voice, because I know that if I don’t say anything, it could be worse things that happen from there. So with me being an advocate for that, I hope some athletes take away from what they’ve learned from me and help them use it for the future.”
Oregon, a place known for a gloomy, dark, rainy climate, consistently ranks among the highest states in the country for depression rates.
Dante Moore continued: “the state of Oregon is high into mental health, depression, and I just want to make sure that I can help give back to the community.”
Moore added that his team holds player-led players-only meetings, were they emotionally support each other, and talk openly about pretty much everything.
I Hear I’m Big in Japan
Moore said he awestruck by the trip that he and six other Ducks players took to Tokyo, Japan, in June.
“Japan was great,” Moore said, of a place where he is now plastered all over billboards. “It was the second cleanest place I’ve ever been to in my life. The most respectful place.
“Being there just makes you think of how are you treating yourself and how are you treating the people around you.”
It was life changing experience for Moore and his Ducks teammates.
“Every time I walked into a building, everybody nodded their head, treated you with respect, and I kind of feel like the whole world should be like that,” he added.
Not saying it’s always going to be great days and happy sunshine, rainbows, but at the end of the day, you just got to respect people in this world. Got the chance to give back to the community, with football.
“I never thought I’ll ever be in Tokyo, but I made it.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.