With spring practice beginning in a couple weeks, HuskerOnline.com begins our in-depth look at each position with our 2017 spring position previews.

Today we start things off by analyzing and breaking down the quarterbacks heading into spring practice.

For the first time since 2010, Nebraska will open a season with a starting quarterback not named Taylor Martinez or Tommy Armstrong.

In fact, the Huskers are essentially bringing in an entirely new quarterback depth chart this spring, as Armstrong and former backup Ryker Fyfe are gone and new faces like junior Tanner Lee, redshirt freshman Patrick O’Brien and true freshman Tristan Gebbia are in.

While there’s been no official word from NU’s coaching staff as to who is the frontrunner to take the reigns as the new starter, it’s assumed that it will be a two-horse race when spring ball kicks off between Lee and O’Brien.

Both players have already been on the team for at least a full season, as Lee sat out last year after transferring from Tulane and O’Brien was able to preserve his redshirt status. Lee and O’Brien also both garnered their share of rave reviews for their work in practices and on scout team.

But based on some of the comments made by Nebraska’s staff - particularly Executive Director of Player Personnel/Special Assistant to the Head Coach Billy Devaney, who called Lee a potential high NFL draft pick - it would seem that Lee has a leg up for the job entering the offseason.

The Huskers also added a fourth QB to the mix in sophomore junior college transfer Andrew Bunch, whose presence should allow the Huskers to redshirt Gebbia.

It also remains to be seen where junior Zack Darlington will play this season. Darlington started last year at wide receiver but moved back to quarterback late in the season to help with depth due to injuries, and he even got some snaps in the bowl game.

On one hand, the amount of praise Lee has received since arriving on campus last summer has been a major reason for excitement regarding the future of Nebraska's offense and the quarterback position as a whole.

On the other, it's also raised the bar of expectations significantly going into the 2017 season.

It's obviously good that the Huskers feel so strongly about Lee's abilities, but it remains to be seen how well he'll handle the hot, bright spotlight that has always been locked in on NU's quarterbacks.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound native of Destrehan, La., started 19 games during his two years at Tulane, including making 10 starts as a redshirt freshman in 2014, when he set multiple school freshman records.

However, the pressure he saw with the Green Wave won't even come close to what Lee will see in Lincoln.

Will he step up and become the top-flight quarterback his coaches think he can be? Or will the expectations already be too great for Lee to meet?

All the talk going into spring ball has been about the competition between Lee and O'Brien for the starting job.

But the newest member to the quarterback room might have something to say about that.

Gebbia enrolled a semester early so he could participate in spring practice and get a jump on his development at Nebraska.

A former four-star prospect who was ranked the No. 6 QB in the country last year, the Calabasas, Calif., native brings an impressive résumé with him to Lincoln.

All that being said, though, it's going to take a monumental offseason for a true freshman to come in and pass up two talented and more established players on the depth chart.

1. Tanner Lee, Jr.

-OR-

Patrick O'Brien, RFr.

2. Tristan Gebbia Fr.

3. Andrew Bunch So.