Oregon Football: Anthony Brown’s leash should be short in 2021

Hearing Mario Cristobal talk at Pac-12 Media Days about his quarterback situation didn’t exactly surprise anyone. He spoke openly about Anthony Brown running with the ones to begin fall camp and the three freshmen right behind, pushing him hard.

This wasn’t all that surprising because Cristobal said the same thing in the spring and that’s been the assumption ever since Brown announced he would be coming back in 2021.

Now that Brown is back as the projected QB1 before fall camp, the feeling around the program should be the same as it was before: he should be on a short leash this fall if he wins the job.

Robby Ashford is my favorite to sneak into the starting job, but the Ducks can’t go wrong with him, Ty Thompson, and Jay Butterfield. Any one of those guys could become a solid 3-4 year starter whole Brown’s ceiling is slightly lower, at least as a passer, in my opinion.

Brown is a plus rusher and has a decent arm but his accuracy has never really been great, never completing more than 60 percent of his passes in a full season. He did complete 65 percent on 23 attempts with Oregon last season but the sample size was very small.

Ashford and Thompson are also strong runners and have better arms. Butterfield is more of a pocket passer but can scramble if he needs to and he has great size.

Quarterback battle should go well into fall for Oregon football

While Brown is the projected starter right now, I would almost put money on the quarterback battle going well into the fall with Thompson, Ashford, and Butterfield right on his heels.

Cristobal likes the fact that Brown has the experience and that’s what’s keeping him as QB1 heading into fall camp, but Ashford had a heck of a spring, Butterfield has been solid, and Thompson is the highest-ranked quarterback signee in school history and enrolled early.

Oregon has four starting-caliber quarterbacks on the roster which is incredibly rare and we’ll see it play well into the fall.

But if Brown does win the job, he needs to be on a short leash.