08-30-2016, 08:43 PM
Burns has the stronger arm, although both QB's have strong enough arms.
Both QB's have prototypical size for a quarterback.
Both QB's are mobile. Conventional wisdom held that Burns was a better rusher than Chryst, while the latter was a better passer, but I don't know that this is true any more.
Burns had much farther to go to learn the system; as is well-documented, he ran a single wing in high school.
Chryst was more polished when he came to Stanford than your average freshman; his father Geep was a QB coach.
As of the spring game in 2015, Burns still had trouble executing the QB/center exchange and despite having been at Stanford a year longer than Chryst, still had further to go to learn the system. As late as one year ago, Shaw was publicly bearish on both quarterbacks, though that may have been a motivational tool.
Chryst was nominally the backup quarterback for Kevin Hogan last year, but in practice Hogan was rarely pulled and he had only 9 attempts. Burns has fewer career passing attempts than Christian McCaffrey.
Most people, including, supposedly David Shaw, believed that Chryst was more likely to win the starting job at the end of last season.
Burns had a stellar spring practice and showed dramatic improvement that carried over to the fall.
The QB competition was pretty close, but Burns was probably a little bit better. More importantly, though, Burns appears to have had a steeper trajectory, starting out a bit behind and ending up a bit ahead. Burns has always had the physical tools, but not the knowledge or experience. He was always a bit of a "project". However three-plus years in the system and he has progressed further than Chryst, who started out at a higher level in QB development, but may have had less room to grow.
Based on what I've seen and heard, there is reason to be bullish about both Burns and Chryst, but we will see in a few days. If the OL can come together, we should be fine.
Both QB's have prototypical size for a quarterback.
Both QB's are mobile. Conventional wisdom held that Burns was a better rusher than Chryst, while the latter was a better passer, but I don't know that this is true any more.
Burns had much farther to go to learn the system; as is well-documented, he ran a single wing in high school.
Chryst was more polished when he came to Stanford than your average freshman; his father Geep was a QB coach.
As of the spring game in 2015, Burns still had trouble executing the QB/center exchange and despite having been at Stanford a year longer than Chryst, still had further to go to learn the system. As late as one year ago, Shaw was publicly bearish on both quarterbacks, though that may have been a motivational tool.
Chryst was nominally the backup quarterback for Kevin Hogan last year, but in practice Hogan was rarely pulled and he had only 9 attempts. Burns has fewer career passing attempts than Christian McCaffrey.
Most people, including, supposedly David Shaw, believed that Chryst was more likely to win the starting job at the end of last season.
Burns had a stellar spring practice and showed dramatic improvement that carried over to the fall.
The QB competition was pretty close, but Burns was probably a little bit better. More importantly, though, Burns appears to have had a steeper trajectory, starting out a bit behind and ending up a bit ahead. Burns has always had the physical tools, but not the knowledge or experience. He was always a bit of a "project". However three-plus years in the system and he has progressed further than Chryst, who started out at a higher level in QB development, but may have had less room to grow.
Based on what I've seen and heard, there is reason to be bullish about both Burns and Chryst, but we will see in a few days. If the OL can come together, we should be fine.