TUCSON - Noah Fifita keeps stacking up the kind of numbers that usually quiet the doubters. The Arizona quarterback has 1,415 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, three interceptions and a 166.3 passer rating this season for a 4-1 Wildcats team, and yet the conversation around his NFL future keeps circling back to the same issue: his 5-foot-10 frame.
That’s the hurdle Fifita can’t outrun. At 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, he’s viewed by some as a late-round pick or an undrafted free agent, even though Arizona’s staff believes he has the tools to stick once he gets into an NFL building.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s drafted first or if he’s an undrafted free agent,” Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege said. “If he gets in that building, he’s staying in that building. I can guarantee you that he’s going to make that roster.”
The skepticism is real, and it comes from how rarely quarterbacks under 6 feet get through the league’s filter. Justin Melo, who covers the NFL draft for Sports Illustrated, said he sees Fifita as an undrafted free agent, though he pointed to traits that should at least earn him a shot.
“I do see him as an undrafted free agent,” Melo said. “There are some things to like on tape about him: He’s an accurate quarterback.
The way he processes things really well at the line of scrimmage. Things like that, I do think will probably get him an opportunity in training camp.”
Melo also stressed how steep the size obstacle is for a quarterback.
“That’s just incredibly difficult to overcome,” Melo said. “In relation to what scouts look for and what they prefer from a size perspective - 5-10, 185, I believe, that’s just going to be 0 to 1 percentile in terms of NFL quarterback size.
So, really, really tough to overcome. The size is by far the biggest concern.”
Only two starting NFL quarterbacks are under 6 feet: the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young and the Minnesota Vikings’ Kyler Murray, both listed at 5-foot-10. Still, the position has produced smaller success stories before. Dough Flutie, at 5-foot-10, threw for 14,715 yards and 86 touchdowns, while Russell Wilson, listed at 5-foot-11, won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks and made 10 Pro Bowl appearances.
Fifita’s case got louder after what he did in 2025. After a rough 2024 season in which he had 12 interceptions while adjusting to a new coaching staff and offensive system, he came back and delivered his best year, throwing for 3,228 yards, 26 touchdowns and six interceptions.
“Two thousand, nine hundred passing yards and 18 touchdowns certainly wasn’t the year he envisioned for himself,” Melo said, referring to 2024. “But you talk about sort of the mental fortitude, come back 2025, didn’t leave the program, right? He’s still there in Arizona and he throws for over 3,200 yards, Really impressive.”
Arizona won nine games in 2025, including victories over No. 25 Cincinnati and No.
20 Arizona State. Melo said Fifita’s bounce-back season was one of the best in recent program memory from a quarterback.
“He had a big 2025. Really appreciated the way he bounced back. Probably one of the better years in program history from the quarterback position,” Melo said of last season when Fifita ranked 23rd in passing yards and ninth in touchdowns in all of college football.
“He’s an accurate quarterback. I talked about accuracy.
I talked about the ball placement. I think he sees things really well pre-snap, especially at the line of scrimmage.”
Fifita isn’t spending much time on the draft talk. He says his attention is on the rest of the season, and he’s already piled up 27 wins at Arizona, one shy of Ortege Jenkins’ school record for a Wildcats quarterback.
He also set the school’s passing mark this season by throwing for 297 yards against Northern Illinois in Week 3, a 42-17 Arizona win that pushed him past Nick Foles. Fifita now has 10,598 career passing yards.
“How many games have you been a part of like that? The whole country should be talking about this kid,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said.
“Not just based on how he plays, not just based on who he is and the choices he’s made throughout his career here. So many people have jumped ship and looked for something new where the grass was always greener.”
For all the college production, the NFL question remains the same. Can Fifita’s game translate once the level gets faster and the margins get tighter, or will teams let the height issue keep them from calling his name?
Arizona’s people who see him every day are convinced the answer is already there.
“Anytime I get a chance to talk to a scout, I’m going to tell them exactly how I feel about Noah, and to me, Noah Fifita is the exception to every rule,” Doege said.
“One of my favorite things to say to anybody that’s that evaluating Noah Fifita is like if you spend a week with Noah. Come back and let’s talk after that and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”
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