It was safe to assume going into the season that Brennan Armstrong would be headed to the NFL Draft next spring, but now you have to wonder.
And that’s being generous. Armstrong has looked average at best in the new pro-style offense brought in by first-year head coach Tony Elliott and his offensive coordinator, Des Kitchings.
After completing 65.2 percent of his passes and throwing for 404.5 yards per game in 2021, Armstrong is completing 54.9 percent of his passes and averaging 228.7 yards per game in 2022.
Armstrong is projecting as an undrafted free agent, which may or more likely may not lead to an NFL job for him.
But that doesn’t have to be the end of the line for BA.
Armstrong is in his fifth year at Virginia, but one of those years was a redshirt year, his 2018 freshman season, and he’d seem to have the option for a sixth year, the COVID redshirt year, if he would want to take it.
He’s already 23, so that would be one reason for him to just try his hand at winning a third-string or practice-squad job in an NFL training camp and move on with his life if a job wouldn’t materialize.
But there is the chance that one more year of college, either at UVA in Elliott’s pro-style offense or somewhere else, could improve his stock enough to earn him a draft pick, which would almost certainly guarantee him a job in the NFL.
He could also be thinking about trying to set himself up in a coaching gig, and using an extra year of college to help with that.
Looking at his options
The NFL
There are 32 teams, and it’s not hard to see at least one who would be interested in extending an invite to Armstrong for training camp, if nothing else to see what they’d be getting – either last year’s guy or this year’s.
Training-camp invites don’t cost teams anything.
Kurt Benkert and Bryce Perkins landed NFL gigs out of training camps, so, there’s that.
Staying at Virginia
He knows the landscape, and assuming Kitchings and QB coach Taylor Lamb are retained for a second year, there’d be familiarity.
I don’t assume that Elliott retains Kitchings and Lamb, so, there’s that.
If those two are gone, and Armstrong wants to play in college, he’d be hanging around to learn his way through another offensive system.
Transfer portal
I’m looking at you, Robert Anae.
And yes, I know that Anae, the former OC at UVA, now at Syracuse, has Garrett Shrader, a junior, running the show, and putting up good numbers – 67.2 percent completion rate, 181.8 yards per game, 14 TD/5 INT.
But Anae, and his QB coach, Jason Beck, who followed him from Virginia, put up video-game numbers at UVA with Armstrong behind center.
I can see it making sense to have Armstrong come in and compete for the QB1 job there.
A benefit to Armstrong with this could be: if a good year at Syracuse doesn’t work out in terms of the NFL, reconnecting with Anae and Beck could lead to a transition for him as an assistant coach after he hangs up the cleats.
And if it’s not Syracuse, I’d think it would make sense to see Armstrong use the transfer portal to land a gig with another Air Raid coach, because he’s more familiar with that system than he ever will be with whatever it is that Elliott and Kitchings are trying to do.
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Chris Graham
