The battle at left guard is on.
At least, for the moment. Former Cincinnati Bengals first-round pick Billy Price broke back into the starting lineup in Week 3 in place of injured rookie Michael Jordan and looked good.
Given that, Jordan getting healthy this week didn’t seem like it would matter much — until Friday.
There, Jordan — not Price — was the guard getting first-team reps during practice in the portion open to the media. Price was back to serving behind Trey Hopkins as a backup center.
But offensive coordinator Brian Callahan later told Jay Morrison of The Athletic that Price also ended up getting first-team reps, too: “We’ll see how that shakes out here, and coming tomorrow we’ll probably have a better idea.”
In other words, the battle, albeit perhaps brief, is on. Jordan shocked most by getting work as the starter after a strong summer and was a good example of the coaching staff’s willingness to ignore status and simply go with whoever performs the best. That partially helped shove aside a first-round product like Price, which wouldn’t have happened under the last staff.
This is called a good problem to have, especially at what is arguably the team’s weakest unit. Saturday could say quite a lot about both Monday night and the rest of the season.
