Making the case for QB2

Quarterback controversy?…I think not. At least not at the top of the depth chart. The only question here is who will be QB2? It is very possible that Chase Daniel is the favorite to win the job based on the contract and the fact the team obviously wants Herbert to be around a veteran presence. Although the fact remains that Daniel has never been known for anything of note other than being a glorified clipboard holder. From my understanding he is great to have in the film room and also from an ‘X & O’s’ standpoint. Yet if it came down to it and the team were in the unfortunate situation where Daniel had to play, I wouldn’t hold my breath on winning any games. How he has even stuck around this long must be a testimate to his film room abilities because he can hardly throw a pass that isn’t wobbly. As is apparent by his stat sheet over the past 11 season’s.

Easton Stick on the other hand hasn’t proved much at the NFL level but he has the potential and upside. This is set to be his 3rd season and unfortunately there was no preseason last year. This leaves us with a small sample size of what we saw from his rookie preseason where there were flashes of real talent and athleticism along with some real bone head moments. His athlethic ability alone gives him a far advantage over Daniel when it comes to making enough plays in order to win your team some games. He was clocked electronically as having ran a 4.6 40 yard dash and an extremely impressive 6.6 3 come drill time. This likely is the reason for his success in a RPO (run, pass, option) style system. While he might have impressive athleticism for a quarterback but his arm isn’t nearly as electric, although he does a good job of taking care of the ball. Well at least that was the case at North Dakota State where he was a 3 year team captain. In fact Stick never had a double digit interception season during his tenure. In his final season he managed 2,752 passing yards with 28 TD’s and just 7 interceptions. Combine that with his 677 rushing yards and 17 rushing TD’s and it’s easy to see how he could develop into a capable and more than effective backup.
When comparing this to Chase Daniel and his college numbers it’s hard to imagine Stick having way more upside than Daniel ever had. He finished with 18 interceptions in his final season and a mere 200 rushing yards. However, in all fairness to Daniel and for the sake of being objective I do have to point out that the competition faced in the SEC is much stiffer than the opposition at North Dakota State. That and he had almost double the total amount of passing yards. The biggest factor for me though is the simple fact that Easton Stick is a winner plain and simple. While the competition was that of division 1AA as compared to Daniel who was an SEC division 1 product, Stick dominated every season there. That’s not an exaggeration either because he was a 4x national champion at that level. That’s right that is not a typo….4x!!!

People may say that Herbert needs to be around a veteran presence. However, isn’t having a very young head coach who just so happens to be former college quarterback just that? It will be an interesting battle in camp. I feel like if its even a close battle it will go to Daniel but I wouldn’t be surprised to see if Stick makes it undeniable.