Something that I talked about earlier today in my stock watch update for offensive lineman B.J. Finney is the fact that having enough talent to be deserving of a starting role, or of playing time, is not always sufficient. Ability without opportunity means nothing is a quotation ascribed to Napoleon, and in many ways he’s quite right, including in the world of football.
That’s where the idea of a ‘starter in waiting’ comes from. That’s the basis of ‘the standard is the standard’. Everybody, at least in theory, is expected to be able to play at a starter’s level.