Despite the lull in sports activity, Duck football did make news this week with word of Boston College quarterback Anthony Brown deciding to transfer to Oregon. When Duck Sports Authority broke news of his visit to Eugene two weeks ago fans asked us one question repeatedly.

Why are the Ducks bringing in Anthony Brown as a transfer QB?

In this edition of DSA Roundtable, our panel of A.J. Jacobson, Dale Newton and Scott Reed give our answers.

Jacobson: The answer to this question starts with Justin Herbert. The four-year starter and future NFL quarterback saw nearly all the meaningful snaps for the Ducks while sophomore Tyler Shough and redshirt freshman Cale Millen have been on the roster. Shough has thrown the ball 15 times during games his first two seasons and has shown tremendous promise. Millen has yet to see the field for Oregon but will likely be fully healthy for the first time this fall camp.

Reinforcing the group for 2020 will be two freshmen, Jay Butterfield and Robbie Ashford. Butterfield enrolled early and participated in spring camp before it was shut down. Ashford will arrive for fall camp, assuming he decides against professional baseball.

So basically, the Ducks have some talented players but are seriously lacking game experience in this unit.

Enter the graduate transfer.

Not only will three-year Boston College starter Anthony Brown bring vital game experience, he will bolster a unit which normally has four or five scholarship players. This is particularly important given the rigors of the Oregon schedule, but also because Ashford is not a certainty.

The addition makes complete sense whether Brown is a backup, starts, or just imparts leadership in the locker room.

Newton: Back in February when football was more important than the availability of toilet paper, reporters asked Mario Cristobal about the quarterback rotation at spring practice. “Competition cannot be a threatening type of situation,” he said. “It has to be something that’s embraced because it makes everybody better.”

Anthony Brown's decision to transfer to Oregon for his senior year makes the depth chart at QB dramatically better. Instead of a raw freshman behind Tyler Shough, the Ducks have a meaningful competition for the starting job. And either way, they have a backup with playing experience.

If Shough hangs on to the #1 job, Brown provides a luxury few teams in modern college football enjoy, a backup with 28 career starts and 40 touchdown passes. His leadership and maturity elevates the quarterback room. He and Shough will push each other.

The senior transfer from Boston College has 4,738 passing yards over three seasons, 423 yards rushing. That's a vast upgrade over Butterfield, Ashford and Millen in terms of experience. It gives Oregon the most solid depth chart in the North Division at QB. It lessens the uncertainty after the loss of Justin Herbert and gives new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead options.

That's particularly important because Moorhead has said he wants to run the quarterback, something that would be much harder to do with a thin rotation.

Reed: Ostensibly, there are two reasons college football teams bring in a graduate transfer at quarterback; the first is if there is an absolute lack of confidence that anyone on the current roster is capable of starting. Oklahoma has used this tool for several years as they have not adequately developed their high school signees enough to compete at the elite level; so they have turned to players like Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts over the last three seasons.

Ironically, Oregon is bringing in its first graduate transfer at QB since Justin Herbert took over for graduate transfer Dakota Prukop in the middle of the 2016 season. But I don’t see this as the reason the Ducks are turning to Brown. Everything I have heard from insiders is that there is absolute trust in Tyler Shough and his ability to lead the team.

That leads us to the second reason to bring in a graduate transfer – quality competition and depth. At the moment, Shough is the only QB in an Oregon uniform to see action in a college football game – or even a week of game preparation at the college level. Cale Millen barely practiced before injuries ended his first season in Eugene and Jay Butterfield was in Eugene for four practices and Robby Ashford may or may not choose a professional baseball career.

That is a QB room devoid of experience and Anthony Brown brings three years of starting experience to the fold. He has the kind of dual threat ability which will actually help Shough, Butterfield, Millen and Ashford during practices and can also create some defensive confusion with special packages.

I believe that the staff implicitly trusts Shough and believes he is going to be very good; but they need depth. New offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead has already said he intends to run the quarterback more frequently than the Ducks did a season ago – that puts whoever starts at risk of injury and now the staff will have two experienced quarterbacks to run the offense which should give them some comfort heading into game preparation to know that they can employ the entire playbook effectively.