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.
Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs (9.25 inches)
For a guy with a Super Bowl MVP, an MVP, and 151 touchdown passes to his name, Mahomes, believe it or not, has some of the NFL’s smallest hands.
Mahomes has played in the AFC Championship Game every year of his starting career and is the league’s arguable best player. Hmm, it doesn’t appear his hand size matters!
Joe Burrow, Bengals (9 inches)
In his second season as a starter, less than a year after he tore his ACL, Joe Burrow threw 34 touchdowns, won three playoff games and took the Bengals to their first Super Bowl in over three decades. Mind you, that’s without an offensive line.
Oh, and he has the smallest hands among all current NFL starting quarterbacks. Yet he’s an elite quarterback anyway? You don’t say!
Considering retirement after I was informed the football will be slipping out of my tiny hands. Please keep me in your thoughts.
— Joey Burrow (@JoeyB) February 24, 2020
Derek Carr, Raiders (9.125 inches)
Given the litany of stars who have entered the league since Carr started his professional career in 2014, it can be easy to forget this Raiders mainstay. He’s not a face of the NFL by any means, but almost 200 touchdown passes and three Pro Bowls at age 30 is nothing to sneeze at.
Little (or widely) known fact: He has the fourth-smallest hands among current starters. We’ll find a hand-size correlation soon. Maybe!
Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers (9.25 inches)
Similar to Carr, no one will confuse Garoppolo for an All-Pro. But he has been the frontman for one of the NFL’s more successful teams of late, and he does bring consistency to the table. In the last two years where the 49ers qualified for the postseason (2019 and 2021), they won four playoff games with Garoppolo as their starter.
But I guess his tinier hands matter more, somewhere, apparently.
Tom Brady, Patriots/Buccaneers (9.375 inches)
We come to the Golden Example. As someone who is arguably the greatest to ever take snaps from under center, Brady didn’t have especially large hands. They weren’t small either. They were merely average for someone of his 6-foot-5 stature.
You would think that that would’ve precluded Brady from throwing 624 touchdowns and winning seven Super Bowls somewhere along the way. But, it didn’t. His average-sized hands never betrayed him. He, and his digits, persevered to an all-time career.
