Late Round Quarterbacks

Rounds 4 and 5 of the NFL Draft was filled to the brim with surprises, such as Ryan Nassib of Syracuse was picked by the New York Giants to be a backup for Eli Manning.  Nassib will not get much playing time there, because Manning has started 135 straight regular season games and counting.

Matt Barkley was taken in the fourth round as well as Nassib, Barkley played at USC and is now an Eagle. The Eagles coughed up quite a bit of dough for this pick number 98. They are giving him a signing bonus of $500,000 and a four year contract for 10 million dollars.

Another good fourth rounder was Landry Jones a quarterback at Oklahoma, he went at pick  number 115 to the Steelers. Jones threw for over 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns last year and will make a great backup for (Big) Ben Roethlisberger. He may even replace him like Rodgers did for Farve after a few years on the bench.

In the fifth round the Jacksonville Jaguars went after the NCAA's rushing leader for a quarterback and a great wildcat quarterback Denard Robinson. Robinson played quarterback at Michigan for four years and ended up even playing a little bit of running back as well. He doesn't have the best arm in the world, but he can run at the quarterback position and at the running back position. This is considered a steal for the Jags' considering how much their offense needs help.

Who do you think was the best quarterback taken out of these late round picks.

Where does Barkley go from here?

Matt Barkley spent his college career at USC with a very talented receiving crew including Marquise Lee and Robert Woods leaving him with talented targets to throw to.

So what could have held quarterback Matt Barkley back after his previous great season? I believe it was the pressure from the rush and also the pressure from being under the spotlight. For example could the fact that Barkley threw 15 interceptions, double of what he threw last be due to the fact that he rushed his throws with a blitz coming? I think a quarterback in this mind set would not do well in the NFL. On top of this Barkley has a history of injuries to his collar bone, which he missed over a month and a half for in his college career. He also missed this years final regular season game and the Sun bowl against Georgia Tech. I believe a quarterback with his history would not make a good franchise quarterback.

So the draft ranking for Barkley in my opinion would be that he would go around the 45th total pick in the draft, which would be the 13th pick in the second round. Predict his draft ranking in the comments!

By David B