As we enter the month of April, we also creep closer toward everyone's favorite part of the NFL offseason: the draft. College players work tirelessly once their season is over to improve their draft stock through private team workouts, training programs, and the NFL combine. What they can't necessarily train for however, is their height, arm length, and of course, hand size. 

Hand size has recently become one of the most polarizing topics of discussion when it comes to comparing draft prospects, as well as presidential candidates. 

This measurement is often discussed, especially when it comes to the quarterback position. Common sense tells us that the bigger your hand, the better you can grip the football and the more control you have when throwing it. This becomes increasingly important in poor weather situations. If someone with small hands went out in a blizzard and tried to throw the ball fifty yards down the field, he would probably run across some problems. 

As new Cleveland Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson put it, "I think guys that have big hands can grip the ball better in those environmental situations and 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."

It seems safe to assume that hand size is a relatively important aspect of choosing a quarterback in the draft. But just how much? 

Here are the hand measurements,  for each quarterback at the NFL combine:

According to ESPN's famed Todd McShay, NFL teams like to see a QB with hands near 9.50 inches, and the closer to 10.00 inches the better. Looking at these numbers and with that guideline in place, scouts may prefer North Dakota State's Carson Wentz (10 inches) over Cal's Jared Goff (9 inches) when comparing the top two quarterback prospects. 

Goff, of course, disagrees with this notion. "I've been told I have pretty big hands my whole life. I heard I have small hands yesterday [at the NFL Combine], apparently. No, I've never had a problem with that or expect it to be a problem at all."

So does hand size truly matter when looking at today's NFL quarterbacks? Let's look at that too. Here are the top 20 quarterbacks statistically from the NFL last season with their measured hand size: 

Note: neither Tom Brady nor Ryan Fitzpatrick have their hand size registered anywhere other than former Patriots general manager Scott Pioli claiming that Brady's hands are "enormous." So rather than estimate, let's add a trio of quarterbacks who we know are pretty darn good but had their season cut short due to injury: Andrew Luck, Joe Flacco, and Tony Romo. We'll also add the Super Bowl winner himself: Peyton Manning. Even though he had arguably his worst season statistically as a pro, his stellar reputation cannot be ignored. 

(While some reports state that Romo has small hands, his combine results say otherwise. The link above also gives us a cool look at what NFL.com looked like in the old days.)  

So with all of these measurements, lets compile them together into a better visual to analyze. We'll separate the measurements into three ranges:

Of the 22 quarterbacks we looked at, a resounding 50% of them have hands measured greater than or equal to 9.75 inches, and closer to the maximum desired size of 10 inches. Meanwhile, only 13.6% of the top quarterbacks have hands that would be considered "small" or "less than ideal". 

Even with some outliers, there appears to be a significantly better chance for a quarterback with large hands to succeed in the NFL. 

Although Jared Goff is an exceptional prospect and definitely has the potential to be one of the few outliers with smaller hands, the current trend shows that he might have a lot of extra hard work ahead of him. Information like this might come in handy for Hue Jackson and other coaches who are on the lookout for potential quarterbacks.