The battle of Tim Tebow and Matt Barkley for the third-string quarterback spot of the Philadelphia Eagles intensifies as the team undergoes the three-day mandatory minicamp which started Tuesday, via NJ Advance Media.

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The minicamp is the last three days of assessments before formal training camp begins on August 2, more than six weeks from now. In between those times, management and coaches will have the time to weigh in on who are going to be included in the final roster prior to the start of the regular season.

And so, June 16 to 18 is Tebow's and Barkley's last chance to show the decision makers what they are truly capable of before entering the team's official training camp.

Chip Kelly is reportedly not inclined to keep four quarterbacks in their final roster even if Sam Bradford is still not 100 percent recovered from his ACL injury. This means that either Tebow or Barkley is going to be released or traded before the regular season, as per the Philadelphia Sun-Times.

Of the two, Barkley is allegedly more likely to be released, according to Sports World Report. He had been on the trading block even before the NFL Draft last April. The 24-year-old former USC standout has not been showing signs of a significant lead over Tebow during the organized team activities as well. And so far in the minicamps, the impression stays the same. If he does not do better on the next two days, then he might be headed somewhere else before September.

In the case of Tebow, he is clearly not an ordinary quarterback. His rushing game is considered a lot better than his passing, although Kelly made sure that those fundamentals were dealt with during the OTAs and are going to be polished more during the minicamp and the regular training camp.

Another thing that is going for Tebow apart from Barkley's mediocre performance is that Kelly appears to have seen something special about him. There were speculations that due to rule changes on PAT attempts, Kelly suddenly needs a signal caller that can provide two-point conversions with relative ease, and he somehow sees Tebow doing that for the Eagles.

The Tebow-vs-Barkley saga continues as the team approaches preseason training camp.

TagsNFL, NFL 2015, NFL news, NFL News 2015, NFL rumors, NFL Rumors 2015, Philadelphia Eagles, Tim Tebow, Matt Barkley