CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t expect any one QB to replace Deshaun Watson at Clemson.

Two QBs, though? Well, that’s a possibility.

In fact, to hear Swinney tell it Wednesday, there’s very little set in stone about Clemson’s QB depth chart, assuring the high-profile job will be an ongoing storyline throughout the spring and possibly well into the season.

“You’d like to have that clear-cut guy ideally,” Swinney said when quizzed on the possibility of a two-QB system. “But sometimes you just have very talented players.”

Swinney and QB coach Brandon Streeter suggested they were comfortable playing two quarterbacks in 2017, should more than one player prove himself ready to play.

Streeter also made it clear that every QB on the roster — including Class of 2017 recruits Hunter Johnson and Chase Brice — will get a shot to win the job.

The only certainty today is the default position at the top of the depth chart entering spring belongs to veteran Kelly Bryant.

“I’m excited for the quarterbacks I have to work with,” Streeter said. “They’re all willing to work hard, they’re all coachable. It’s an unknown out there on who’s going to be the starter. And there’s a lot of work to do. But I have a lot of confidence in the guys I have here.”

Bryant is the only QB on Clemson’s roster who has taken snaps in an actual game. Tucker Israel and Zerrick Cooper both redshirted, and Cooper — a former ESPN 300 recruit — is seen as perhaps the best mix of talent and experience in the system. Brice, a four-star recruit from Georgia, doesn’t arrive until the summer, which puts him at a distinct disadvantage, but Johnson — an early enrollee and ESPN’s No. 1 overall QB recruit — makes for an intriguing option right off the bat.

“He’s got an incredible skill set and is as talented a guy as we’ve signed,” Swinney said. “But you’ve just got to go to work. That’s what Deshaun did. All you can do is go through the process and evaluate, and we’ve got to get some water under the bridge before we can evaluate that. But as far as potential? It’s off the charts.”

The advantages for Johnson are obvious. He’s the most talented QB on the roster, and like the guy he’d be replacing, he’s not particularly interested in sitting on the bench early on.

“I see him working,” Swinney said. “He’s one of those driven guys, highly self-motivated. But how does it translate?”

Unlike Watson, however, Johnson arrived on campus far more physically prepared for the job. At 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Johnson looks the part already. Watson was wiry and lean when he took his first snaps in 2014, and an injury in spring practice probably kept him from starting in Week 1.

Of course, those mysteries — the random dings and dents, the big adjustments to the size and speed of college defenses — make all this a shot in the dark, even for a player of Johnson’s pedigree.

That’s what will make the next few months so much fun. And, of course, even after the 2017 season, there are no guarantees that the mystery will be solved with a nice, neat conclusion. After all, this is Clemson, the defending champs now on a roll on the recruiting trail, and as the battle for the job rages this year, next year’s top QB, Trevor Lawrence, is waiting in the wings.