• Please be aware we've switched the forums to their own URL. (again) You'll find the new website address to be www.steelernationforum.com Thanks
  • Please clear your private messages. Your inbox is close to being full.

Will Kenny Pickett’s Hand Size Matter?

Steeler Nation

Steeler Nation

Administrator
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Apr 7, 2014
Messages
2,542
Reaction score
4,985
Points
93
The Pittsburgh Steelers are surely interested at some level in Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett. Pickett of course shares a training facility, and Heinz Field with the Steelers. The hot topic has been not whether he can lead a football team, but the size of his hands. The same topic was hot two years ago when Joe Burrow had small hands, and teams debated whether it would matter. Obviously the Cincinnati Bengal’s didn’t care and drafted him #1 overall. It’s worked out for them so far.

Now Pickett had his hands measured today, and he came in with an 8.5 inch measurement thumb to pinky finger.

perspective on Pickett's 8.5 inch hands

of 663 QBs w measured hand sizes since 1987, only 9 had smaller than 8.5" hands

there is no QB in the NFL with 8.5" hands

there has been no QB to enter the NFL in at least 5 yrs w 8.5" hands

last successful QB w 8.5" hands was Mike Vick

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 3, 2022
Click to expand...



Teams believe quarterbacks with smaller hands are more prone to fumbling. There isn’t an official stat, but according to Pro Football Focus Pickett fumbled the ball a ridiculous 38 times during his collegiate career.

Pickett has been doing hand exercises for the past few months in an effort to stretch his hands out so that he could get a little bit bigger of a measurement.

“The reason why I didn’t measure at the Senior Bowl was to have those extra couple weeks,” Pickett said. “Just a common sense thing, having more time to work the exercises. … Whatever it measures, it measures.”
Click to expand...

Some of the other notable quarterbacks with that measurement are Jeff Blake, Michael Vick and Kliff Kingsbury. Pickett said he didn’t have a lot of conversation with teams about his hand size this week.

“There wasn’t much talk about that in all the formal interviews and informal interviews I’ve had so far this week.”
Click to expand...

There were some rumblings from the Senior Bowl when bad weather hit practice. Some scouts suggested that Pickett struggled due to the weather, and his hand size. While it’s probably likely that hand size does account for something, it probably isn’t a tell-tale for how well a quarterback is going to do in the NFL.

Do you still want Pickett? Let us know in the comments #SteelerNation?

Support SteelerNation by clicking here to read the story..
 
Steeler Nation said:
The Pittsburgh Steelers are surely interested at some level in Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett. Pickett of course shares a training facility, and Heinz Field with the Steelers. The hot topic has been not whether he can lead a football team, but the size of his hands. The same topic was hot two years ago when Joe Burrow had small hands, and teams debated whether it would matter. Obviously the Cincinnati Bengal’s didn’t care and drafted him #1 overall. It’s worked out for them so far.

Now Pickett had his hands measured today, and he came in with an 8.5 inch measurement thumb to pinky finger.





Teams believe quarterbacks with smaller hands are more prone to fumbling. There isn’t an official stat, but according to Pro Football Focus Pickett fumbled the ball a ridiculous 38 times during his collegiate career.

Pickett has been doing hand exercises for the past few months in an effort to stretch his hands out so that he could get a little bit bigger of a measurement.



Some of the other notable quarterbacks with that measurement are Jeff Blake, Michael Vick and Kliff Kingsbury. Pickett said he didn’t have a lot of conversation with teams about his hand size this week.



There were some rumblings from the Senior Bowl when bad weather hit practice. Some scouts suggested that Pickett struggled due to the weather, and his hand size. While it’s probably likely that hand size does account for something, it probably isn’t a tell-tale for how well a quarterback is going to do in the NFL.

Do you still want Pickett? Let us know in the comments #SteelerNation?

Support SteelerNation by clicking here to read the story..
Click to expand...
His hands won't effect his draft status. He will go top 10.
 
Won't matter when it comes to his draft status. MAY matter when someone like TJ Watt is chopping at the hands to try and strip sack. Time will tell.
 
To be honest this along with his propensity to fumble will hurt his draft status. Some teams more than others but this could effect him going in round one. He was on the bubble to begin with. It just depends on those teams drafting 20-32.
 
He will NOT be able to be very convincing on pump fakes. Some here have totally ignored the hand-size and I think it is a big deal. In college you don't have near the talent trying to kill / get / strip / ect. yaz as you will have in the pros. More fumbles and strips but like SteelBuckeye says.............. time will tell.





Salute the nation
 
PFF is full of literal **** that oozes out of their otherwise empty skulls... 38 fumbles is not a real stat.... not even close... I just went through a metric ton of sites that track such things as well as old game logs.... this is realistic https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/player/kenny-pickett

He didnt fumble his first season, but only played four games. He had six in his next two and seven two years ago, and only 4 this season.... there are some sites that list him as high as 26 total fumbles there are some assignment discrepancies over botched hand offs and where the blame lies.

the thing is last year malik willis dropped the ball a ton, and ridder has one fewer fumble than pickett over the past four years, and hand size isnt an issue there
 
The hand soze thing really exploded when rumors of his hands being under 8 inches were prevalent

8.5 is small but on the bottom edge of what can work in the nfl… its a risk, but its not like signing a 5’5” qb “lol
 
Thornton just ran a 4.21…. Do you think his sub 8 inch hands are going to scare anyone away from overdrafting him now?
 
Steeler Nation said:
Teams believe quarterbacks with smaller hands are more prone to fumbling. There isn’t an official stat, but according to Pro Football Focus Pickett fumbled the ball a ridiculous 38 times during his collegiate career.
Click to expand...
I'd say it's unofficial. Fox Sports has Pickett's fumbling stats as follows (fumbles/fumbles lost):

2018: 9/5
2019: 7/2
2020: 7/1
2021: 3/2

So he fumbled a grand total of 3 times in 13 games in his final season, and that includes 97 rushing attempts when he either carried the ball or was sacked. Yeah, sounds like a ridiculous problem.

Also of note: Ben and his 9 7/8" hands fumbled the ball 11 times in 16 games last year. Imagine that.
 
Vick was a fumble machine. That's how you beat him.

I don't want any part of Pickett and his carney hands. You also have to keep in mind the NFL football has a larger circumference than the college ball. It will be a factor. I'm 6' with 9 1/2" hands, and I was a heck of a receiver. I know my pump fake throwing is nearly non existent and baby hands Pickett will get exposed by teams with any ability of a pass rush.

His hands were 8' and had to do stretches to get to 8.5. He doesn't have Vick's mobility, and no other QB with hands 8.5" or less has amounted to anything in this league. He's not even on my draft board.

Let some other team waste a pick on him.
 
Cope said:
Vick was a fumble machine. That's how you beat him.

I don't want any part of Pickett and his carney hands. You also have to keep in mind the NFL football has a larger circumference than the college ball. It will be a factor. I'm 6' with 9 1/2" hands, and I was a heck of a receiver. I know my pump fake throwing is nearly non existent and baby hands Pickett will get exposed by teams with any ability of a pass rush.

His hands were 8' and had to do stretches to get to 8.5. He doesn't have Vick's mobility, and no other QB with hands 8.5" or less has amounted to anything in this league. He's not even on my draft board.

Let some other team waste a pick on him.
Click to expand...
Those stretches didn’t do anything to change his hand size.
 
The NFL ball is not bigger than in college. I don't know where this came from. It's the same exact size.
 
insaniti said:
The NFL ball is not bigger than in college. I don't know where this came from. It's the same exact size.
Click to expand...
"The NFL and NCAA do not use the exact same specifications for their footballs, meaning the balls used in college football can be slightly smaller. The balls used in college football also have white stripes on either end, while NFL footballs have no stripes."

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

Ja'Marr Chase: NFL ball is harder to catch than NCAA ball, harder to see without white stripes - ProFootballTalk

Bengals rookie wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase has an interesting excuse for the dropped passes that have plagued him in the preseason: He says he’s still adjusting to the change from the NFL football to the NCAA football.The NFL and NCAA do not use the exact same specifications for their footballs...
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

"The variations might seem small, but NFL players can tell the difference. Quarterback Chase Daniel, who has played for six NFL teams and finished college as Missouri’s all-time passing leader, went so far as to say he could “easily” pick out which footballs were used for college versus the NFL — even if he was blindfolded. “They’re bigger here in the NFL,” Daniel says. “I like the NFL ball. I think you can spin ’em a little bit better.”"

https://www.ozy.com/the-new-and-the-next/when-football-players-go-pro-their-balls-get-bigger/90091/
 
Cope said:
Vick was a fumble machine. That's how you beat him.

I don't want any part of Pickett and his carney hands. You also have to keep in mind the NFL football has a larger circumference than the college ball. It will be a factor. I'm 6' with 9 1/2" hands, and I was a heck of a receiver. I know my pump fake throwing is nearly non existent and baby hands Pickett will get exposed by teams with any ability of a pass rush.

His hands were 8' and had to do stretches to get to 8.5. He doesn't have Vick's mobility, and no other QB with hands 8.5" or less has amounted to anything in this league. He's not even on my draft board.

Let some other team waste a pick on him.
Click to expand...
While im not big on any qb this year, the hand size thing is grossly flawed… there is no correlation between hand size and fumbling… a solid hit on a football will dislodge it regardless of hand size ..

This is just another old metric that the nfl has used for decades with no real basis in its effectiveness…. Small hands can play a part in bad grip like small stature can lead to vision issues while making reads but it doesn’t necessarily correlate to it… you have to judge each case separately … too often a base metric becomes way too important in drafting guys or giving them a shot

Decastro had short arms, aaron Donald was just too short overall…

Yeah a metric can raise a red flag for further investigation but it should not be a reason to remove him from a draft board altogether.

This was the same knock on Burrows and its been a non issue there too…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top