If there’s one area the greater football world could improve upon, it would be in over-analysis of the smallest details. One blemish that somehow always appears around NFL Combine season is discussing a quarterback’s hand size.
This year that backwards discussion is centered around former Pittsburgh signal-caller, Kenny Pickett. Pickett, an otherwise accomplished college player, measured out with some of the smallest hands in Combine history at 8.5 inches. And as is the norm with all the draft pundits and analysts and supposed professional scouts, this is somehow a significant point of contention when projecting Pickett’s career.
I want to hammer home how ridiculous this sentiment is. We’re supposed to forget–or even simply sideline–thoughts of how accurate of a passer a person is or how well they do under pressure. And instead, there’s supposed to be a lot of weight placed on whether they can comfortably palm a football with one hand. Yeah, it doesn’t look any better in writing.
Hand size is more of a fun trivia fact than anything that says a quarterback will fail in the big leagues.
Pickett, of course, need not fear that his smaller-than-usual NFL phalanges will betray him at the next level. There are plenty of starting quarterback examples, who also had small hand measurements at the Combine, that we can point to and say this won’t matter in determining his future.