Widely viewed as a sure-fire first-round pick a year ago, USC quarterback Matt Barkley dropped to the 2013 NFL Draft's fourth round due, in large part, to concerns about his arm strength.
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"You couldn't ask for a better kid or a harder worker," one AFC executive told Yahoo! Sports early this month. "But he just doesn't have the arm on the deep stuff."
New Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly -- as the head coach at Oregon -- watched Barkley gash his defense for 484 yards and five touchdowns last season. He's not concerned about fluttering passes.
"When I've watched him in person, I think he can deliver the ball," Kelly said Saturday, via Philadelphia Magazine. "Sometimes the arm strength aspect of it is overrated because people are trying to paint it with a brush. We're not trying to knock over milk cartons at a county fair. It's, can you put the ball in the right spot at the right time. And I've seen that over the course of Matt's career."
Barkley doesn't have the athleticism or the arm talent of Kelly's previous quarterbacks. NFL.com's Albert Breer suggested the fourth-rounder does give the Eagles the option of running a two-quarterback offense. More likely, Barkley is around as a fallback option in the case of overwhelming despair should quarterbacks Michael Vick and Nick Foles fail to impress in their first season running Kelly's up-tempo offense.
Follow Chris Wesseling on Twitter @ChrisWesseling.
