“That’s a big question; baseball or football?” Boettcher revealed while speaking at the combine. “‘Are you a baseball guy or a football guy?'”<\/p>\n
Boettcher played baseball with the Ducks<\/a> for four seasons and was drafted in the 13th round of the 2024 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros<\/a>. According to Boettcher, the Astros organization has been understanding of him finishing out his football career at Oregon and seeing how the NFL draft unfolds.<\/p>\n “Still pursuing a career in baseball or is that on hold?” a reporter at the combine asked.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n “That’s on hold right now,” Boettcher responded. “I’m pursuing fully football right now and I want to win a Super Bowl. So, you know, all football right now.”<\/p>\n The former Oregon linebacker registered a career-high 136 tackles during his senior season in 2025, spearheading a dominant defensive unit that ranked 12th in the nation in fewest points allowed. While there’s still a long ways to go, Boettcher is widely seen as a mid-round draft pick.<\/p>\n Putting a lid on the football-baseball talk at the combine, Boettcher reaffirmed his commitment to football and the NFL.<\/p>\n “It’s football,” he said. “Football is my passion. I love it. I can’t hit anyone on the baseball field. I love baseball, but this game makes me feel alive. There’s a reason that I’m here.”<\/p>\n Contact\/Follow\u00a0@Ducks_Wire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon\u00a0Ducks<\/a>\u00a0news, notes, and opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 26, 2026, 11:45 a.m. PT The NFL Combine is the prime time when teams pick and prod…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[67525,5,2291,4,1586,77682,77683,67595,67533,69041,67704,68040,67578,77684,77685,67528,67529,67527],"class_list":["post-595308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-draft","tag-accessfree","tag-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-draft","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-draft","tag-sstssportscollegeducksfootball","tag-sstsnfootball","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbaseball","tag-tagbig-10-hub","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-taghouston-astros","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","tag-tagoregon-ducks-football","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116140313710784215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/84341057007-858813274.jpg\")