Why Jared Goff's small hands matter

— -- Small hands for quarterbacks are like short arms for left tackles -- an immediate red flag for NFL evaluators. Anything less than 9 inches is considered too small in a league where ball security is a point of emphasis for every team. 

So it was alarming when Jared Goff's hands measured exactly 9 inches on Thursday. The Cal QB arrived in Indy as my No. 2 QB and No. 9 overall player -- and there's a lot to like about him when you turn on the tape. He has a smooth release, a great work ethic and a high football IQ. 

There has been a lot of chatter around Goff possibly being selected by the  Cleveland Browns at No. 2 overall. But a small-handed QB is a hard sell when you're playing in the AFC North, where adverse weather conditions are an issue. New Browns coach Hue Jackson said as much yesterday when asked if hand size matters for QBs: "Oh, yes it does. It does. It matters because we play in a division where all of a sudden there's rain, there's snow and it's different. I think guys that have big hands can grip the ball better in those environmental situations, so we'll look for a guy that fits what we're looking for in a quarterback, and is hand size important? Yes, it is."

Now, it's not as if the Browns will take Goff off their board because of his hand size, but the team could use it as a tiebreaker of sorts if they have similar grades on Goff and North Dakota State's Carson Wentz, who checked in with ideal measurables on Thursday (6-foot-5, 237 pounds, 10-inch hands).

The next step for me with Goff -- and Penn State's Christian Hackenberg, my No. 5 QB who also has 9-inch hands -- is to study inclement-weather games. Do their small hands show up on tape with ball security issues? It was not something I had flagged for Goff heading into the combine, so I'll take a closer look now. 

It's important to note: This wasn't an all-negative day for Goff. At the end of the season, word was that he weighed 195 to 200 pounds -- which would have triggered some durability red flags. Today, he checked in at 215. He still needs to pack on a few pounds, but at least he showed NFL teams that he could keep weight on.