The 2026 Senior Bowl will be played today at 2:30 pm, and this past week has been full
of reports and rumors surrounding the practices. One of those is the Diego Pavia height
measurement coming back at 5’9. Vanderbilt lists their quarterback at 6’0, but it’s
commonplace for schools to falsely boost their players’ physical traits. Will this
revelation affect the quarterback’s 2026 NFL Draft stock?
Short Quarterbacks Over The Years
There has always been a stigma about short quarterbacks, but that has softened a bit
over the years. While someone like Doug Flutie had to establish himself in the CFL
before the NFL would give him a legit shot, there have been two quarterbacks under 6’0
taken first overall in the last six drafts (Bryce Young and Kyler Murray).
Pavia does not comparable favoravbly to Murray, despite finishing second in 2025
Heisman voting (Murray won the award in 2018). The Oklahoma two-sport superstar
had insane numbers in his only season as a starter. He completed 69% of his passes
for 311.5 yards per game with 42 touchdowns to seven interceptions. He also rushed for
1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Pavia was wildly accurate for the Commadores this past year (70.6%) but averaged just
272.2 yards per game, with 29 touchdowns to eight interceptions. He rushed for 862
yards and 10 touchdowns. It’s a big gap from 54 touchdowns to 39. Murray also made
the College Football Playoff with Oklahoma, and Pavia wasn’t close. Pavia also
struggled against ranked teams, going 5-7 as a senior, averaging 209 yards per game.
A better short quarterback comp for Pavia would be former Wisconsin starter and Super
Bowl champ, Russell Wilson. Like Pavia, Wilson struggled with accuracy in his first
three seasons of college and had a good senior year. They averaged about the same
amount of passing yards, with Pavia being a better rushing quarterback. Wilson was a
third-round draft pick, expected to back up the Seattle Seahawks new free agent
signing, Matt Flynn.
Diego Pavia Height Won’t Be The Reason He Slides
Wilson surprisingly won the starting job as a rookie, and the rest is history for him. This
may be a best case scenario for Pavia. Get picked in the middle rounds, and surprise
people by beating out the starter. He may not go until the later rounds, though, and will
have to compete to stay off a team’s practice squad.
At the end of the day, it won’t be his height that keeps teams from selecting Pavia; it will
be his career. He has a history of struggling against top-flight competition, and in the
NEL, every team is top-flight competition. It doesn’t help that he is under 5’10, but teams
look at so much more than that. Nobody thought he was going to measure over 6’0 at
the Senior Bowl anyway, so this isn’t that big of a surprise.
