When he was on the bench for most of the season, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had little choice but to listen to pundits suggest that he lost the job he held for the entire 2014 regular season to Cardale Jones because of arm strength.
Now that he's taken over as the starter again for a struggling Jones, he's had enough.
"I guess since I'm not 6-5 and 250 [pounds] that I didn't have a strong arm or something," Barrett said, clearly referring to Jones. "I didn't know what that was about."
His full remarks delve into how effectively he threw the deep pass last year, and how he's been waiting for the right time to set the record straight about his arm strength.
Where Barrett's argument falls a little flat is that arm strength isn't measured solely by the ability to throw the ball deep downfield. Plenty of quarterbacks who don't have a particularly strong arm can throw the deep ball with some effectiveness, as long as the timing is right.
The key word where arm strength is concerned is velocity, not only at the college level, but with NFL scouts.
Whether a quarterback can fire the intermediate throw into a small window and beat tight coverage is a much better barometer for arm strength. Can a quarterback throw an out route to the wide side of the field with enough power to beat a cornerback breaking on the ball?
Plenty of quarterbacks who can throw long can't do these things.
This much we know: Barrett has plenty of arm strength to win at the highest level of college football. Whether he has the arm strength to do it at the next level is another matter, but it won't be judged on how far he can throw a football.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
