his progression all that much, along with a whole lot of other players who do the same at BYU, so your assertion does not hold much water - it's already been proven invalid by Tanner himself - last year as evidence. You may still have this opinion, but it is contradicted by almost all of the evidence out there of other back-up QB's, like Steve Young, et al.

And, c'mon, no one just sits for a year. If they're a great player like Tanner obviously is, they learn the offense from one of the greatest minds in football - TY, practice and prepare like their going to play each week, and either stay healthy, or go in for the guy who gets injured.

If doing that for a year is all it takes to stifle Tanner's progression, then he may not the player that some think he is. But, of course, that's not true, nor is it who he is. I highly doubt that one more year as the back-up QB will hamper him one bit, any more than it did for Steve Young when he backed up Joe Montana, or a meriad of other "back-up" QB's. Great QB's, like fine cheeses, are never hampered by some additional time to cure, and inevitably still become great in the end.