The second receiver, the second corner, the nickel corner, Justin Houston’s replacement ... there are a lot of fun position battles to look forward to this training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs.
However, the most important position battle is backup quarterback. Potentially the most important.
If this year is anything like the previous three years, the backup quarterback won’t matter. Tyler Bray, Aaron Murray or whoever it is will come into a Week 17 game to throw some passes in a game that doesn’t matter because the Chiefs have wrapped up the division (we can hope).
If, however, things don’t go as planned, Bray or Murray could play a starring role in the Chiefs 2016 season.
Let’s say Alex gets hurt. The Chiefs are probably screwed, right? We went over that recently with most of us saying they’re a sub-.500 team without Alex so you hope it’s not a long injury. But they’re still going to play the games and we’re still going to watch. That means this is still an important position battle ... potentially.
Tyler Bray got the initial No. 2 reps this offseason over Aaron Murray. They each have their strengths but more than anything they are both unknowns. As much as I want to say we learn a lot in training camp, it’s still really difficult to evaluate the second and third quarterbacks.
Bray went undrafted in 2013 and was very young and immature. He’s grown up the past three years. He has the physical skills that an NFL coach can work with. I’m sure Andy Reid believes in his ability to coach anyone up but you can’t coach physical talent so I’m intrigued here.
Murray is a multi-year starter from Georgia who, like Bray, hasn’t done much in the past two seasons. Murray comes off as a smart dude like Alex Smith. He’s also got some sneaky athleticism like Alex. I can see where he would fit.
Then there’s Kevin Hogan who doesn’t really factor in here. Without seeing training camp yet, I’d be stunned if Hogan were involved in the No. 2 competition.
I would lean to Bray winning this job. As I said, Andy Reid believes he can coach anyone up. Bray, who is only 24 years old, has raw skills that Reid believes he can translate into the NFL level. My early money is on Bray.