{"id":715995,"date":"2026-01-30T07:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T07:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715995\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T07:44:15","slug":"diego-pavia-explains-how-he-makes-up-for-height-ahead-of-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715995\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Pavia explains how he makes up for height ahead of NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 29, 2026, 8:52 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Height isn’t something Diego Pavia thinks should hold a lot of weight ahead of the 2026\u00a0NFL Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Vanderbilt quarterback has drawn a lot of attention after he was listed as 6\u20190 at Vanderbilt\u00a0before his official Senior Bowl measurements revealed he was 5\u20199 7\/8, over two inches shorter\u00a0than what he was advertised as.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, it\u2019s certainly worth noting that Pavia still made it to the point he did in his career and\u00a0achieved all the same accolades at that height. He says that a quarterback can be anything he\u00a0wants to be in the modern era, and that height is not an important factor to consider.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see people from 6\u20195 all the way to 5\u201910, 5\u20199 and stuff,\u201d Pavia told me. \u201cAs long as you\u2019re a\u00a0 winner, a competitor, you\u2019ll be in the NFL. I\u2019ve always been this tall, so nothing changes here\u00a0(with the measurements out). Our O-line in the SEC last year was between 6\u20195 and 6\u20197.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pavia believes who he is as a pure football player from a tangibles and an intangibles perspective is what matters the most.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have the heart of a lion and I feel like I\u2019m a great teammate,\u201d he said. \u201cI have fast feet, I\u2019m\u00a0mobile in the pocket and can make plays. I can can improvise\u2026 I feel like I bring quite literally\u00a0everything to the table but height.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former Commodores signal-caller says he feels he should be noticed for the type of leader he is and the way he performs as a \u201cwin at all costs type of guy.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI lead by example. I won\u2019t ask the guys to do anything I can\u2019t do myself or that I haven\u2019t\u00a0already done myself,\u201d he said. “I\u2019m the type of guy who is a connector, bringing the whole team\u00a0to my house and things like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between the systems he played in at New Mexico State and Vanderbilt, Pavia, who has said multiple times that he believes he is the best player in college football, feels he is fully prepared\u00a0to be an NFL quarterbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the extra tricks and twists within the Vanderbilt offense are things he believes will give\u00a0him an extra edge in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pro-style offense at Vanderbilt. Maybe we ran just a little more option there than they do\u00a0in the NFL,\u201d Pavia said.<\/p>\n

Some of the NFL\u2019s most prominent quarterbacks perform exceptionally well with running option\u00a0 a bit more heavily than some others do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the NFL, you see option a lot with Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson and guys like that,\u201d Pavia\u00a0 said. \u201cA little with Baker Mayfield sometimes. I think it\u2019s good to have in my arsenal. At the\u00a0same time, when you go look at my tape, you can see I\u2019m a good passer, I can do it all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see where Pavia lands in April \u2014 and where \u2014 with scattered\u00a0 projections in mocks throughout Senior Bowl week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 29, 2026, 8:52 p.m. ET Height isn’t something Diego Pavia thinks should hold a lot of weight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[95878,7,6,15,97135,97136,95882,96027,95896,95888,95906,96099,99127,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-715995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-sstssportsnfldraft","13":"tag-sstsndraft","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagcollege-sports","16":"tag-tagnational-sports","17":"tag-tagnfl","18":"tag-tagoverall-positive","19":"tag-tagsec-conference-football","20":"tag-tagsenior-bowl","21":"tag-tagsports-news","22":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}