Costello, Burns and the offensive line in the spring ball spotlight

The Cardinal's first practice of spring is Tuesday night. When coaches and players get to work away from the prying eyes of fans and media there will be many on the outside who will wonder about how two position groups, quarterback and the offensive line, are performing.

Those are the final, and most important, questions heading into the spring season of football.

And Cardinal Sports Report begins with the Tunnel Worker's Union, the much maligned unit of 2016 who may not have received the credit they deserved in the face of a nearly unprecedented run of injuries since the start of the David Shaw Era.

Brandon Fanaika, Johnny Caspers, Casey Tucker and David Bright each missed game time due to injuries, and they played through pain beyond the normal aches resulting from 300-pound men ramming into each other. That list is sure to send cringes through the Stanford football offices, as well as relief that Nate Herbig was a significant positive for the team as a true freshman.

The linemen who arrived on campus with Herbig will provide a boost to the competition this spring: Devery Hamilton, Clark Yarbrough, Henry Hattis and Dylan Powell are coming off redshirt years.

And when the trio of Walker Little, Foster Sarell and Drew Dalman show up in June the options to play in 2017 will look dramatically different from last season. Until then:

Normally a line that returns almost everyone who started the previous year doesn't have much mystery during this time of year. That's not the case for the Cardinal.

Burkett and Herbig appear set at center and guard, respectively, with the only unknown with Herbig being which guard spot. He is comfortable playing on either side of Burkett, which may not be true of who emerges as the second best guard, which consequently could determine where the Big Island settles.

The most intriguing question within the offensive line competition will be whether a tackle is destined to move inside.

Fanaika, Wilson and possibly Bright will compete to start alongside Burkett. If either show Bloomgren and head coach David Shaw that they can handle the job then that may tap the brakes on the need to move anyone.

At tackle the long-held belief has been that Hamilton is poised to be a major factor after a year developing within the program. The initial whispers of excitement from the staff described an elite-level ceiling for Hamilton.

Hall and Bright are not to be forgotten in this equation. Hall often drew criticism for his play at left tackle but he improved over the course of the season. He and Bright can play either tackle spot -- and Bright can play guard -- and at the very least are able to make the Ogre even more imposing.

However the line comes together for Stanford, the question of which quarterback they will be blocking for during the season is to be determined.

On national signing day Shaw said that Chryst is still considered the starter while he recovers from the knee injury he suffered against North Carolina in the Sun Bowl. That was not surprising, and falls into the standard operating procedure that a coach won't declare someone lost a job in the offseason before he's had a chance to come back and defend his spot.

Chryst was undefeated as a starter against defenses that, for the most part, were significantly less imposing than the ones that Ryan Burns was tasked with beating. But, regardless of opponent, as he became more comfortable as the starter Chryst showed the physical tools that made him a top prospect.

But Chryst is out until fall camp, which means Burns and redshirt freshman K.J. Costello will be the only scholarship quarterbacks available for spring. Costello seemed excited to get back on the field.

Bloomgren, Shaw and quarterback's coach Tavita Pritchard each discussed during different points of the season and after bowl practices that Costello was impressing with his work on the field and in meetings. In addition to his physical skills, Shaw and Pritchard specifically talked about how quickly Costello grasped what they wanted him to do and then was able to do it.

He will have plenty of reps to show if he can first pass Burns on the depth chart, who should be considered the No. 2 quarterback until proven otherwise. Any speculation about Costello surging past two players who have started and won tough games for Stanford has to start with a strong spring.

Burns' statement about returning for a fifth year at Stanford included this final sentence: "It's also very important to me to prove to this team and to myself that I can be so much better than I was last year."

Burns struggled after a strong start to the season and had miscues in the Sun Bowl that did not reflect his ability. Those visuals may make it difficult for Cardinal fans to remember when he looked like a capable successor to Kevin Hogan.

But starting with the beating in Seattle the season unraveled for Burns. If he can rediscover the mojo of his first three games, which included 10 straight completions against Kansas State, then the quarterback competition only gets more interesting.

Stanford fans will get their first look at the quarterbacks, linemen and everyone else in an open practice on Saturday.