Hand measurement comes up short for former Pitt QB Kenny Pickett at NFL Combine

INDIANAPOLIS — NFL teams will have to hope Kenny Pickett’s heart is bigger than his hands.

The former Pitt quarterback finally had his right hand measured Thursday at the NFL Combine, and the result came in at 8.5 inches.

That is among the smallest measurement for a quarterback in NFL Combine history.

The last — and perhaps only — successful quarterback in the NFL with 8.5-inch hands was former Falcons, Eagles, Jets and Steelers quarterback Michael Vick, who was the No. 1 overall pick in 2001 and spent 13 years in the league.

According to Sharp Football, only nine out of 663 quarterbacks measured since 1987 had smaller hands than Pickett. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, also a No. 1 overall draft pick, was considered to have small hands, and his measured 9 inches at the combine two years ago.

Pickett said Wednesday that the media has made more of an issue out of his hand size than NFL talent evaluators.

“There wasn’t much talk about that in all the formal interviews and informal interviews I’ve had so far this week,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Pickett has a double-jointed thumb on his right hand. He declined to have his hand measured at the Senior Bowl so he could use stretching exercises in the three weeks before the combine to widen his grip.

“Whatever it measures, it measures,” Pickett said. “I’m sure that won’t be the last of it, but it’ll be the last measurement I take of it.”

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