Something this staff will have to do a lot better at than the previous staff is understanding their roster and playing the right guys early. The past few years of essentially musical chairs at times on the OL is enough proof of that. No position is this most critical at this upcoming year than the QB position.
I think we have a chance to be competitive in some games this upcoming season if we get solid QB play. But it is extremely important that we determine who the best QB is early. Determining the best QB early is not the same thing as the best QB for the entire season necessarily.
When you look at our schedule, it is definitely much easier initially than after the 4 or 6 game mark of the season. We have to take advantage of this. So to illustrate this, let's assume an example here where the staff believes and is right that they think Cozart is better now but either Stanley or Willis would be better by the end of the season. Because of the schedule, I would argue that they should start Cozart now. Doing so would give them the better chance of winning early against their easiest opponents.
Now with that example, I think it also shows that there would be some value in playing one of the freshman a couple of series per game early on. Get their feet wet a little bit. You would still maximize on QB play early on by starting the best QB, but also set yourself up for the rest of the season if this particular scenario would be true.
Who knows what the case really is. Maybe one of Cozart or Millweard is the best QB now and the best QB for the entire season. Maybe it is one of the freshman. Maybe it is a situation where a freshman QB will be bad initially but good later. Whatever the case is, it is critical for the staff to determine this, do so correctly, and act accordingly because the window of opportunity to win a couple of games will be a lot more wide open early on that it will later in the season.
I think we have a chance to be competitive in some games this upcoming season if we get solid QB play. But it is extremely important that we determine who the best QB is early. Determining the best QB early is not the same thing as the best QB for the entire season necessarily.
When you look at our schedule, it is definitely much easier initially than after the 4 or 6 game mark of the season. We have to take advantage of this. So to illustrate this, let's assume an example here where the staff believes and is right that they think Cozart is better now but either Stanley or Willis would be better by the end of the season. Because of the schedule, I would argue that they should start Cozart now. Doing so would give them the better chance of winning early against their easiest opponents.
Now with that example, I think it also shows that there would be some value in playing one of the freshman a couple of series per game early on. Get their feet wet a little bit. You would still maximize on QB play early on by starting the best QB, but also set yourself up for the rest of the season if this particular scenario would be true.
Who knows what the case really is. Maybe one of Cozart or Millweard is the best QB now and the best QB for the entire season. Maybe it is one of the freshman. Maybe it is a situation where a freshman QB will be bad initially but good later. Whatever the case is, it is critical for the staff to determine this, do so correctly, and act accordingly because the window of opportunity to win a couple of games will be a lot more wide open early on that it will later in the season.
