First, it seems to be a common opinion that, even when healthy, Nelson was a bad QB. I guess anyone's entitled to their opinion, but in his jr, non-injured year, he had a PER of 153 and averaged 8.5 yards per throw. Beck didn't beat that until his sr year. Hall was better in his jr and sr years, but not by all that much (157, 160). By comparison, Christian Stewart had a 138 and Taysom Hill, who I thought looked very good last year, only had 141. So, you can believe that Nelson was *never* a good QB, but the stats simply don't back that up.

Second, players downplay injuries. I told my coaches I was ready to play when I could barely run on a bad knee. Hall played with a separated shoulder against Utah 2005, Bosco with a bad wing the whole second half of 1985, Unga was always playing hurt. I won't hold that against him. I think it's fair to question the coaches about playing him, but frankly, from what I saw, there weren't a lot of options. That is, some high profile recruits simply didn't pan out to be viable backups.

Third, I am convinced that a lot of the hostility toward RN is repressed anger/frustration about the disappointing fact that Heaps simply didn't turn out.