Kevin Gilbride’s QB Dilemma — Jay Hayes In The Spring League?
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Kevin Gilbride’s QB Dilemma — Jay Hayes In The Spring League?

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Tuesday night’s TSL action brought us some fun football, as the Jousters blew out the Blues in dominant fashion. The Jousters came out on top 28-7, in a game that was one-sided throughout its entirety.

Compared to week one, the Jousters made some massive strides forward, especially in the area of quarterback play. Against the Generals, both Luis Perez and Drew Anderson were inconsistent. Last night, they were much sharper against the Blues – which puts Kevin Gilbride in an interesting situation.

Kevin Gilbride’s QB Dilemma

According to last night’s broadcast, Kevin Gilbride was planning on naming a starting quarterback for week three, after seeing how Anderson and Perez performed in weeks one and two.

However, both quarterbacks put up some solid numbers last night, making this decision quite a bit more difficult.

In the first half, we saw the Luis Perez show. After a shaky start, he came around, making throws with pinpoint accuracy to put the Jousters on top 13-0 at halftime.

His confidence in the pocket is underrated – multiple times he was faced with tough pressure, but found a way to complete a pass, or scramble for some yardage. His one interception of the game came off of a tipped ball, other than that he was almost flawless.

However, in the second half, Drew Anderson came in as the signal caller, and he also put up decent numbers. He found a wide open Darren Woods for a 94 yard TD (the longest in the TSL this year), and also showed what he could do with his legs. On a 3rd and 15, he ended up scrambling through multiple defenders to pick up the first.

Anderson did throw a pick six in the early goings of the 4th quarter – but outside of that, he looked solid and made the right reads.

Kevin Gilbride is now at a crossroads. If he does want to name a starting QB for week three, it may make more sense to go with Luis Perez, as the two of them also played in the XFL last year for the Guardians.

That being said, Drew Anderson does have more NFL experience than Perez, and showed some resiliency last night against the Blues. If both quarterbacks continue to play as they did in week two, there may not be a wrong choice in this scenario.

If you missed last night’s game, you can watch the full highlights here, to try and make a decision for yourself:

Jay Hayes Is In The Spring League?

In a surprising turn of events, we discovered last night that Jay Hayes is the defensive coordinator for Kevin Gilbride’s Jousters.

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This certainly caught a lot of viewers off guard, especially since The Spring League never announced that Jay Hayes was a part of the league. Hayes has quite the history in the NFL, coaching for multiple different teams throughout his career.

However, many spring league fans were excited to see him be a part of the TSL, as he was the DC for the St. Louis Battlehawks in 2020.

The Jousters defense was on a different level last night, as the Blues were completely shut out on offense. With Jay Hayes at the helm, their defense is certainly in good shape for the rest of the season.

De’Quan Hampton’s Big Night

One final takeaway from last night: it is fun to see De’Quan Hampton back out on the football field. The Los Angeles Wildcats legend gave us this hilarious clip last year, in the XFL’s final game:

He finished the day with 80 yards receiving, and was a big target for Luis Perez in the first half. We look forward to seeing plenty more of Hampton throughout the TSL’s 2021 season.

Did you enjoy watching The Spring League this week? What do you think Kevin Gilbride should do with his quarterback dilemma? Let us know down in the comments below, or join the conversation on Discord!