Be the GM

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by SNR

The problem with that is it's not going to be a fair competition at all. Cassel's clearly going to win due to coaches wanting "experience" at the position. If you kept Stanzi, THAT would be a slight risk, after all.

Then you've got the wrong coaches.

The traditional formula for contending teams is that you've got your starter, you've got your developmental guy, and you've got an experienced or otherwise highly capable backup. The last two duke it out for second string. I kind of like that formula. Maybe if you're rebuilding you go with two developmental guys, but no coach should ever throw in the towel before the season starts, so let's go with the traditional formula.

You've got Orton as the starter, clearly.

You've got Stanzi or another non-1st round drafted rookie (3rd-7th round, maybe as high as 2nd) as the developmental guy. Maybe if Palko outplays Stanzi he's the developmental guy, but with his lack of arm strength I think he's no longer in contention for this role. He has no long-term upside.

For the experienced or highly capable backup, you go with either Cassel (experience), a highly drafted rookie (1st or 2nd round), or Palko. Most likely Palko won't beat out Cassel, though he should still have the chance. If you bring in a 1st round rookie, or maybe a 2nd round rookie, he can compete for this role as "highly capable" rather than experienced.

The ideal solution would be keeping Orton and then having a 1st-round rookie backing him up and either Stanzi or another rookie as the developmental guy. But even though I think it's a good strategy, I doubt that we'll draft two QBs this year.