INDIANAPOLIS — Kenny Pickett takes the comments about the size of his right hand not with a dismissive pout, but with a chuckle, a smile and good humor.
The University of Pittsburgh quarterback knew the questions were coming Wednesday when he met media at the NFL Combine. And he knew they would be different than the ones that NFL teams — including the Broncos — lobbed his way during the evening interviews.
“It is what it is,” Pickett said when he met a phalanx of media at the Indiana Convention Center on Wednesday, having had his press conference delayed by extended medical examinations from teams that morning.
“I think the media runs with it more than I’d say NFL teams do. There wasn’t much talk about that in all the formal interviews and informal interviews I’ve had so far this week.”
Various reports had Pickett’s hands at 8 1/4 inches early in his college career — which would be 3/4 of an inch below the generally accepted baseline for hand size for most NFL quarterbacks. He declined to have his hand measured at the Senior Bowl, instead opting to focus on a series of exercises that he hopes will increase his measurement.
“It’s just exercises I’m doing,” he said. “Just a common sense thing, having more time to work the exercises.
“Whatever it measures, it measures. I’m sure that won’t be the last of it. But it’ll be the last measurement I take of it.”
As for the interview with the Broncos — a team that Pickett knows through his relationship with Peyton Manning, for whom he worked at the Manning Passing Academy?
“I had an interview with them that went really well,” Pickett said. “I haven’t spoken to Peyton about it. But I think it’d be a great fit. And I would be really excited to play there, as well.”
Could Pickett fit what the Broncos want?
That answer depends on the perspective one possesses.
On one hand, general manager George Paton described hand size as “big” when asked about the value of measurables in quarterback evaluation. The evolution of quarterbacks and the traits that portend success has largely removed height from the equation, but hand size remains something to consider.
Hackett was equally dismissive of height, but he also shook off the concern about hand size, placing his focus on other factors more endemic to the quarterback’s actual play.
“I used to put a lot into that,” Hackett said. “Earlier in my career, getting to know guys like Ronde Barber, watching guys like Drew Brees, we can say all these things and say there’s a typical size, hand size, weight. But in the end, there’s players, and there’s guys that aren’t as good of players. And I think that you just have to go with your gut on those things, because there is nothing specific.
“I think that of course, you want the prototypical stuff — oh, this guy’s whatever — but heck, in the end, you’re a player or you’re not.”
Pickett showed that sort of potential in his senior season at Pitt. Will it be enough to make him this year’s QB1 in the draft? That is up to the Broncos and other teams to decide.
