Barkely In Great Position In Senior Year

Matt Barkley will be talked about all season long in much the same way Andrew Luck was last year, as the consensus #1 pick in next year’s NFL Draft. Of the list of other QB contenders that might wrest the top spot from him, it doesn’t seem likely that he will not be the first passer gone and likely the first of all players.

I was glad to see Barkely stay for his senior season, as I am to see others do the same, like Tebow did after winning the national championship in his junior year. Tebow needed to get better, Barkely probably had a couple of other reasons and getting better wasn’t at the top of the list. With USC’s disciplinary problems, Barkely has quarterbacked the Trojans through a tough time and kept them at the elite level they were when they were doing the things that got them into trouble in the first place and that was no easy task and seeing it through to his senior year had more personal value to him. Secondly, with Luck and Robert Griffin III in this year’s draft, waiting until 2013 would give him a much better chance of getting the #1 slot.

Most players benefit from staying an extra year in the college game for both personal and physical maturation, but if the money is right, it is time to go no matter what sport you play, because you can always go back and get the degree, but you can’t always guarantee what might happen from one year to the next. Stay healthy this year Mr. Barkely and get some insurance.

Matt Flynn Can Get It Done

Matt Flynn is listed at 6'2, 225 lbs.  The new Seattle Seahawks quarterback fighting for the starting job against Tavaris Jackson and even 3rd round pick Russell Wilson, who is just 5'10.  Flynn doesn't seem like he is as big as listed while playing and has flown under the radar for his brief career until his breakout game last season against the Detroit Lions.

After that game Flynn became one of the hottest free agents this off-season.  Watching that game recently on NFL Network, it was a spectacular shoot-out between Flynn and Matthew Stafford, I took note of Flynn's mechanics and footwork.  He has the goods to become a solid, if not very good, starter in the NFL.

Many quarterbacks are sloppy in the final stages of setting up to throw and take extra steps and change their balance to stop the dropback and transition to throw.  Matt Flynn showed a number of times that he keeps his balance very well on his last step, with minimal wasted movement and gets rid of the ball.  There was a play late in the game off play-action where he would have been hit in the pocket if he had taken any extra steps, but he was clean, got rid of the ball and even though it was a bit behind the receiver, because it came out efficiently, the receiver caught it before the defender could get there and ended with another TD for Flynn.

Matt Flynn won't be flashy in Seattle (is anything flashy in Seattle?) and he will have to fight off the athletic Jackson and solid Wilson for the job, but he will be a guy that can run an offense efficiently and give the Seahawks a chance to win.

Tebow Gaining, Freeman Losing Weight For 2012

A few weeks ago, Tim Tebow made news about continuing to add bulk to his already bulky frame.  Anyone else in the football world makes less news and much less has been made of Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman slimming down for the upcoming year.

By adding weight and strength, Tebow is basically saying that he isn't serious about playing quarterback full-time in the NFL or at least not for the New York Jets this year.  Tebow would do well to emulate Rocky Balboa in Rocky III, when he took to the pool and other means by which to create quickness.  He is plenty big, even if he lost 15 pounds of his 250 lbs. body, to withstand an NFL season as a "slash" type option QB.  Tebow has a slow arm swing to begin with and needs to understand the difference of snapping his elbow to create power and speed and not swinging his entire arm over and around to throw the football.

In the meantime, on the west coast of Florida, huge QB Josh Freeman has taken another tack to improve his chances of playing better in the fall.  He has dropped significant weight and gotten a haircut and I applaud both.  First, he was pudgy and does not need to be above 260 lbs.  Secondly, he needs to mature and his flopsy-mopsy hairdo was doing nothing for creating the persona of being serious on the field.  Life is about image as Andre Agassi drilled into our heads for so many years from the tennis courts and so it is on the football field as well.  How people perceive your leadership and competitiveness is as important and many times more important than reality.  Losing weight and cropping the hair to give the impression of a more business-like approach will do him and his team well this year.

Wisconsin QB Impresses

Another smallish quarterback stepped into the stature-challenged friendly confines of the FFCA.  Jon Gruden has never interviewed a QB he didn't love deeply and Wisconsin's Russell Wilson is now in this growing list. 

Gruden hammered the "too short" complaint against this very effective, successful and impressive young man to make the point of how good he has been at both North Carolina State and Wisconsin, even playing behind the biggest line in college football with the Badgers.

I haven't paid much attention to him because I saw him as a "running quarterback" as he looked like a Nebraska style QB many times, but Gruden's QB Camp gave me more exposure to him and would certainly like to have him as a backup on my team.  I don't know if he will ever get a real chance to take a starter's spot in the NFL, but his intelligence and competitive spirit will keep him around for a while.

Can Kellen Moore Move To Next Level?

Every measurable screams average (at best).  But, Kellen Moore, the record-breaking QB from Boise State only lost a couple of games in his career at Boise, who only recently became a national power and that had much to do with the left-handed quarterback.
He reminds me a Ty Detmer type players.  Detmer is also of small stature and relatively weak arm strength, but won the Heisman Trophy playing for BYU, and had a decent NFL career.
Kellen Moore's lack of arm strength has something to do with his Tebow-like mechanics (see photo from combine), but unlike Tebow, he is extremely accurate and has used his zen-like instincts to get rid of the ball quickly and efficiently to the right guy and allowed his Bronco teammates to make the big plays.
Because of his arm strength, he will probably go undrafted, but will most likely win a 3rd string job with somebody come September.