It appears to me, from what I've seen of him playing - Family Night, and the two preseason games - as well as what I've read from various sources reporting on training camp activities/practice reports/etc., that he is absolutely good enough - right now - to play and not be the type of OL that you have to do a lot of 'hiding' or helping or etc. - that he would, at minimum, hold his own and not get the QB killed.

I also believe, based on draft status, testing numbers, what I'm hearing from Gutekunst, LaFleur, even Larry McCarren, etc., that his "ceiling" is well beyond what either Walker or Rhyan can ever hope to reach. His potential is just plain higher than either of those guys, and not by a little bit.

The sooner he gets on the field, the sooner he will grow into and maximize that potential.

Is there a chance that he could plateau and never be what I (and LaFleur and Gute and others) think he could be? Sure there is. But even then, the quicker you find that out, the quicker you can get to work on replacing him if that's the case.

But NONE of those things happen (growth into potential, or finding out that he never will) if he's sitting on the bench. And in my mind, it would be a huge mistake to waste a year of opportunity having him sit behind two guys who you KNOW will never be what Morgan COULD be, and at least one of whom it is widely assumed won't even be here next year. Invest in the guys who will be here in the long term. In this case, that means playing Morgan.

And before someone says "practice", I feel like the current CBA situation has limited practice time so much that there just isn't a lot of time to spend on 'developing players'. Any more, a good amount of that development now has to be by 'throwing them to the wolves and see what happens'. Especially once camp ends and the regular season begins - they don't even have a full pads practice every week any more. It's really not enough.

That's my opinion, and I'll die on that hill.