Will Stanford pick an ILB duo or stick with a rotation?

© Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

If effective playing depth was an issue on the defensive line in 2016, the opposite appeared to be true in the middle of the linebacker corps. For the entire season Stanford defensive coordinator Lance Anderson and inside linebackers coach Peter Hansen rotated six players in pairs.

The linebacker partnerships were Jordan Perez and Mustafa Branch; Noor Davis and Sean Barton and Kevin Palma and Bobby Okereke.

With Noor Davis' graduation -- and it is unlikely freshman Gabe Reid will jump into the competition after two years away from football -- the answer of who starts at the position will come from players who were on the field last season.

What started as a way to give players of varying experience a chance to prove who deserved the most snaps became the plan for the entire season. Toward the end of the season Anderson admitted the rotation lasted longer than he expected and the staff decided to make it permanent.

After the Oregon game, Anderson talked about how pleased he was with the development he'd seen from the linebackers: "The whole group has gotten better with experience," he said. "I think the plan that we had (to rotate), and a lot of it was because they were so close competition wise, is really paying off. You see the younger guys getting better. You see Mustafa Branch and Sean Barton improving every week with the reps they're getting."

The strategy drew criticism at times as observers noticed opponents maybe moved the ball more effectively against certain rotations, but there were also positive moments for each player, and pairing, throughout the season.

Bobby Okereke often earned praise from Hansen and Anderson as a developing talent who was starting to flash less and produce more consistently as the season went on. He and Barton seem to have the most natural ability at the position.

Barton in particular saw his stock skyrocket by the end of the season, when Hansen said it was during the Notre Dame game that he started seeing Barton make plays he didn't think any of the other inside linebackers could make.

And by Big Game he was making highlight plays that no one could miss.

How far Okereke and Barton have come on the road of their development is only one of the questions about the linebacker corps for the spring.

Will either Branch or Perez be able to hang on to playing time in the face of the expected rise of Okereke and Barton?

Will an outside linebacker move inside if the staff thinks the lack of separation in last year's rotation actually shows a problem that the current group can't completely solve?

Returning inside linebackers 2016 statistics