In the lead-up to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, one of the more intriguing storylines isn't about a breakout performance or a surprise riser-it's about a tape measure.
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, fresh off a standout senior season that saw him named a Heisman finalist, measured in at 5-foot-9 7/8 and 198 pounds. That’s a far cry from the 6-foot, 207-pound listing he carried throughout the 2025 season. And while this kind of discrepancy might raise eyebrows among casual fans, it’s hardly new in the world of college football.
The Height Game: A Quiet Tradition
Let’s be real-college programs have been inflating player measurements for years. It’s an open secret in the scouting community. Whether it’s adding an inch or two to a quarterback’s height or padding a few pounds on a defensive lineman, the motivation is simple: make the player look more NFL-ready on paper.
Scouts know this. They've seen it before.
At the 2016 NFL Combine, for example, 28 of the 332 players measured in at least two inches shorter than their college bios claimed. Most were off by about an inch, which might not sound like much-until you consider how much emphasis the NFL places on measurables, especially at quarterback.
A Familiar Pattern
Take Bryce Young. Alabama listed him at 6-foot, 194 pounds during his final college season.
At the 2023 Combine, he came in at 5-foot-10, 204. He still went No. 1 overall, but his size was a hot topic throughout the draft process.
For quarterbacks, height isn’t just cosmetic-it’s functional. Seeing over the line of scrimmage, avoiding tipped passes, reading defenses from the pocket-these tasks get tougher when you're under 6 feet.
Which brings us back to Pavia.
The Draft Reality Check
At just under 5-foot-10, Pavia enters the pre-draft process with a measurable disadvantage. And while the NFL has seen shorter quarterbacks succeed-Drew Brees and Russell Wilson come to mind-those players had elite traits that helped them overcome the size question.
Pavia has talent, no doubt. He threw 29 touchdowns in 13 games and led Vanderbilt to a 10-3 record, a season that earned him national recognition and vaulted him into the Heisman conversation.
But the NFL is a different animal. Scouts aren't just looking at the stat sheet-they're dissecting film, evaluating decision-making, and projecting how a player's skills translate to the next level. And for Pavia, that’s where the concerns start to mount.
According to a preseason scouting report from The Draft Network, Pavia struggled at times with post-snap reads. Defenses that disguised coverages or rotated late into different looks often gave him trouble, leading to negative plays or turnovers. That’s a red flag for any quarterback prospect, especially one who’s already facing questions about size and arm strength.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just about Pavia. It’s a reminder of how college football programs-knowingly or not-can set their players up for scrutiny by manipulating measurables.
Sure, it might help a player look more appealing during the season, but the truth comes out in Mobile and at the Combine. And when it does, it can reshape a prospect’s draft narrative in a hurry.
Pavia is now projected as a late-round pick, possibly a seventh-rounder. That doesn’t mean he won’t get a shot-plenty of quarterbacks have carved out careers from that position.
But it does mean he’s got a tougher road ahead. He’ll need to show in interviews, on the whiteboard, and in live reps that he can process quickly, make smart decisions, and overcome the physical limitations that scouts will be scrutinizing closely.
Final Thoughts
Diego Pavia’s college résumé is impressive. He was a leader, a playmaker, and a major reason Vanderbilt had one of its best seasons in recent memory.
But the NFL is a league where every inch, every read, and every decision matters. As the draft approaches, Pavia’s challenge will be proving that the things you can’t measure-poise, processing, leadership-are strong enough to outweigh the things you can.
And for every college program watching from afar, it’s another reminder: the tape-and the tape measure-never lie for long.