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Kenny Pickett's hand-sized saga continues. Pickett’s girlfriend, Amy Paternoster, joined in on the Internet-wide joke by keeping her significant other apprised of Twitter updates.
At the NFL Combine, Pickett’s hands came in at 8.5 inches, and this measurement concerned some scouts because most NFL teams prefer their quarterbacks to have hands of, at least, nine inches from thumb to pinky.
Paternoster recently posted a photo on Instagram. In the photo, she was showing Pickett some tweets regarding the attention being given to his hand size.
She captioned the photo with her conversation with him:
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“Look at this funny tweet about your hands.”
Pickett even replied to her post:
“Always keepin me updated! 😂”
Kenny Pickett is not too worried about his hand size
Kenny Pickett, to his credit, is taking the extra attention given to his appendages in stride.
During a media session, he told reporters, “Whatever it measures, it measures.”
Clearly, Pickett is relying more on his throwing skills, ability to read defenses, overall athletic ability, and competitive nature, in the hopes of landing with an NFL team in the first round.
Pickett comes in at an NFL prototypical 6 foot 3 inches tall, 217 lbs, and a 4.73 40-yard dash time. According to NFL.com, he projects to be a solid draft pick that could be a good NFL starter “within two years.”
His five years of experience, as well as four years as a starter at Pitt, plus his pocket presence and driving velocity on throws are pluses in his favor. Conversely, his poise while under pressure and slower release on his throws are areas that could use some improvement, according to his draft profile.
As for his hand size, plenty of quarterbacks with sub-nine-inch hands have gone on to have good or great careers. Former number one overall pick Alex Smith famously had smaller hands, but the 49ers made him their top pick. Although he did not become the superstar expected of number one overall picks, Smith was a good NFL quarterback who incredibly came back from a devastating leg injury.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrows is also an example of a great signal caller who did not let pre-draft measurables hold his career back. In his second season, Burrows helped lead his team to their 3rd Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
That being said, Kenny Pickett’s hand size did increase by ⅛ of an inch by the time he showed out at Pitt’s pro day. Football is a game of inches, and in Pickett’s case, it may be the difference between being a day one or day two draft pick.
