Clemson football: QB room thin and in need of some help heading into summer

The Clemson football team will have a new leader at quarterback as the Tigers continue to prepare for the upcoming 2021 season.

Former 5-star and No. 1 QB in the nation D.J. Uiagalelei is set to take over as the starter for Clemson this season and there is plenty of hype surrounding the 6-foot-5, 240 pound gun-slinger.

Uiagalelei will be faced with a tough task as he replaces the winningest quarterback in Clemson football history in Trevor Lawrence, who led the Tigers to three-straight CFB Playoffs and a National Championship.

As we look forward to the upcoming season, let’s begin our position-by-position analysis by looking at the quarterback room.

The Clemson football quarterback room is thin, but there might be promise ahead heading into the summer

Projected Depth Chart:

Starter: DJ Uiagalelei

• Hunter Helms

That’s it. That’s the projected depth chart right now as we head into the summer.

The expected backup- Taisun Phommachanh- will be out following a season-ending Achilles injury that he suffered during the spring game and the only other player on the roster is walk-on Hunter Helms.

Clemson football was hoping to add freshmen Bubba Chandler and Will Taylor to the mix, but that is not looking so promising here at the moment. Both Chandler and Taylor are expected to be first-round picks in the upcoming MLB Draft (this July) and they would be turning down millions of dollars if they chose to still come to school rather than go ahead and pursue their professional career.

While there has been no indication from Chandler or Taylor’s camp yet as to which way they’re leaning, we can almost say with certainty that the Tigers will not get both of them on campus either way and they’d be fortunate to get one.

So, where does that leave this QB room? In need of some help.

Uiagalelei is going to be one of the nation’s best quarterbacks and there’s really no questioning that, but the Tigers need some help to build the depth chart. There’s no way you can go into a season with only two active quarterbacks, but Clemson is facing that possibility if the Tigers don’t act.

Could the answer be the NCAA Transfer Portal?

There have already been some reports that Clemson football might be leaning that way and it wouldn’t be surprising if the Tigers picked up their first transfer at some point this summer prior to fall camp as a way to add much-needed depth to the QB room, but we wouldn’t expect to hear anything official or for the Tigers to heavily explore that route until the decisions of Chandler and Taylor are made final.