Texas A&M football spring position preview: Aggies’ QB room is talented and deep

Why the QB position is a strength for Texas A&M football in the spring even with Weigman injured

Spring practice has now fully gotten underway for Texas A&M football. It's hard to believe that we're not even halfway through the longest offseason of any sport—Aggie fans are already quite eager to see this team in action.

But before they're ready for the playing field, new coach Mike Elko and his staff need to work their magic. That starts in spring.

Now, it's still early. But as Aggie fans survey the way this team stacks up, you have to feel great about the quarterback position.

If there was one upside to the horrendous injury luck at signal caller that the Aggies endured last year—which was, of course, a bizarre continuation of being similarly afflicted the past two years—it was that the depth at the position got a lot of run. Most of that was the now-departed Max Johnson, it should be said, but Fresno State transfer Jaylen Henderson got a solid three games under his belt.

It was an impressive stretch for a guy that most Aggie fans hoped would not have to see the field entering the season. He captained the Ags to a 51-10 blowout of Mississippi State in what would be Jimbo Fisher's last game as Aggie coach, coasted past Prairie View the next week, and put in serious work against LSU before the team faltered late.

Because things seemingly must always be this way, though, Henderson sustained a serious injury on the first play of the bowl game. At that point, freshman Marcel Reed stepped in... and, despite the loss, he delivered big time.

Reed and Henderson both bring an element of explosiveness and electricity when running the ball that was lacking earlier in the year, which partially explains the ease with which they were operating out on the field. If we're talking ceilings, though, it seems to me that Reed has the edge over Henderson, if just a bit.

Whether he is able to reach that ceiling—or even do enough to surpass Henderson on the depth chart—during this spring period is another question. Now, the new Aggie coaches are starting from a blank slate, so maybe they are higher on Reed from the jump. Former coach Jimbo Fisher had a penchant for prizing classification over talent, so Reed's true freshman status could have been working against him last year.

How that all shakes out will doubtless be interesting to follow. What we didn't need confirmation of, however—yet something that Mike Elko so kindly gave us confirmation of anyway—is that Conner Weigman is still the number one guy at the position.

The pure talent that Conner is working with (respectfully) is head and shoulders above the rest of the room. Even in a Miami game where the Aggies had some trouble moving the ball, he still made some incredible throws—just check this video out for a quick breakdown.

Without a doubt, the biggest key for success this upcoming season is the health of #15. If he can stay upright and going at full steam for the entire season, the Aggies will have the advantage behind center in every game they play—and, of course, that goes a long way towards getting the win.

For now, though, Weigman is limited as he continues to return from injury. It's an open question as to whether we see him in the spring game. Even if he sits out on April 20th, however, there's no question of his status and his talent.

Add the element of a Collin Klein-coached offense, and it's hard to not get excited about the ceiling of this A&M offense as a whole. There are more positions to iron out, of course—but that's an article for a different time. This A&M first-team offense, though, has the skill to execute at a much higher level than anything Aggie fans have seen in quite some time—and that all starts with the man behind center.