As Lester said during his press availability, everything he called during practices was having Cade in mind, not Deac or Marco. His job was to make sure he was preparing the other 10 starters (and the backups) for the new offense so that once Cade came back it would be a lot easier plug and play. They had Deac taking the first team reps because he could go thru his progressions better than Marco which made the offense run a little bit better for the other 10 starters. It was never about Deac, it was about everyone else.
And now that that the portal is open, Lester can go find a competent backup to Cade at the least, and at the most, someone who can directly compete and then possibly take the job if Cade hasn't regained his former self or is still too injured.
I said on another thread that I don't think it's a coincidence that Sullivan, the presumed starter at NW and a guy Lester previously recruited at WMU, is now in the portal a few mins after Deac announced. I think that's our guy.