Armstrong can only benefit by adapting to new UVa offense

Until a few months ago, Brennan Armstrong had spent his entire college football career under the tutelage of offensive coordinator Robert Anae and quarterbacks coach Jason Beck. Two years as an apprentice behind Bryce Perkins at Virginia, then the past two seasons putting up big numbers as the Cavaliers’ starter.

But when head coach Bronco Mendenhall stepped down in December—and in the fallout of that decision, Anae and Beck both departed for the same positions at Syracuse—Armstrong found himself at a career crossroads: Stay at UVa for a fifth season, this time playing for new head coach Tony Elliott and his incoming staff, or declare for the NFL Draft to pursue a pro career.

He chose to stay. Armstrong believes that decision will set him up for a better chance at success when he ultimately does move on.

“If you get to that step or that stage and play in the NFL, you’re not guaranteed anything. It could be team-to-team every year,” the Cavaliers’ quarterback explained after Saturday’s Blue-White Game. “You’ve just got to be able to learn an offense quickly. And once you do that and you can perform it, that’s how you get to stay on a team and be consistent.”

The tandem of Anae and Beck had built a reputation for developing pro quarterbacks in their half-dozen years at UVa. The Hoos’ other two primary starters during the Mendenhall era, Kurt Benkert and Bryce Perkins, were both in the NFL last season. Benkert spent the year behind MVP Aaron Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers; Perkins won a Super Bowl ring while backing up Matthew Stafford with the Los Angeles Rams.

Statistically, Armstrong has been the best of the three at Virginia. Last fall, he set a bevy of single-season school records for quarterbacks. Among them: passing yards (4,449) and touchdowns (31) and yards of total offense (4,700).

Had the Hoos not been forced to opt out of the December Fenway Bowl appearance against SMU, the lefty would have likely broken the ACC’s single-season passing yards record. As it stands, Armstrong’s 2021 season sits fourth on that list, behind Deshaun Watson (4,593 yards, 2016), Matt Ryan (4,507 yards, 2007) and Philip Rivers (4,491 yards, 2003)—who all went on to become veteran NFL quarterbacks. Draft analyst Dane Brugler of the Athletic told CavsCorner last November that Armstrong would have been a potential pick had he declared.

Instead, Armstrong has spent the spring working with the new offensive staff that Elliott recruited to Charlottesville, including offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb. Armstrong has impressed those coaches with his size and physical skills, his quick release and accuracy, and the short amount of time it’s taken the fifth-year veteran to pick up the new scheme on the practice field. He’s demonstrated his ability to read coverages and has shown improvements with his timing in the pro-style offense.

“Every offense, you try to figure out what you’re good at and continue to do that,” Armstrong said. “The last offense, we were good at specific things, we continued to do those and it worked. This offense is pretty diverse. It’s got a lot of ways of throwing the ball, different ways of getting guys open, getting guys in different spots to get them the ball.”

Amstrong then smirked as he added, “So overall it’s completely different.”

He’s been working more under center than previously in his career. The new staff has also challenged Armstrong to clean up some fundamentals, like footwork and throwing in rhythm on drop-backs. Playing for both teams in Saturday’s spring game, his numbers weren’t as eye-popping as last year’s: a combined 23-of-42 for 212 yards, with no touchdowns and one interception.

“Brennan is an instinctual player,” Elliott said after the scrimmage. “We know that, and last year he played off a lot of instincts and just feel. I think he’s become a little bit more detail oriented, and understanding progression reads, leverage reads. Management of the game is an area where I’m really challenging him to grow.”

“We talk a whole bunch about Brennan being, we don’t need a LeBron James or Kobe Bryant,” said Lamb earlier this spring. “We need Brennan to be Rajon Rondo or Steve Nash, get it to our guys in space.”

Elliott has praised his new quarterback for his eagerness to learn the Cavaliers’ new offense and get to work with the new coaching staff. But there’s one other area where the first-time head coach—who worked with Watson and Trevor Lawrence, a pair of first-round picks, in his time as offensive coordinator at Clemson—has pushed Armstrong to take another step: as a vocal leader.

"He’s got fire to him but a lot of times he keeps that fire to himself,” the head coach said. “I’m starting to see him transition that to, great quarterbacks, they talk to their guys. They talk to their guys, and everyone has a different approach in how they talk to their guys but I’m seeing him start to talk more to his guys and communicate, to really, really, really strengthen the relationship between him and his skill guys.”

One of those skill guys, veteran receiver Dontayvion Wicks, has noticed it too.

"Just hearing his voice," Wicks pointed out when asked about Armstrong's growth this spring. "It just gives the offense energy so that we can do better.”

Armstrong will enter the 2022 season just 678 passing yards and five touchdown throws behind Matt Schaub—the last UVa quarterback to be drafted, in 2004—and 190 total yards behind Perkins for the school’s all-time records in those statistics. But he’s more concerned about building on last year’s 6-6 record than setting any additional records.

Armstrong also sees this season as a chance to show how adaptable he can be as a quarterback; to show that “his game travels,” as Lamb put it. Early in spring practices he used the word “uncomfortable” to describe his adjustment to a new coaching staff and scheme after the consistency of his first four college seasons. He meant it in a positive sense, believing the experience will make him a better quarterback in the long run.

“It’s all about consistency and productivity in the NFL,” Armstrong said on Saturday. “And me being able to adapt, learn a new offense and try to go out there an be consistent with—maybe not the same numbers because it’s a different style—but my same play and hopefully get some more wins on the board, I think that’ll say a lot personally about me, but also just about our whole team.”

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