{"id":780482,"date":"2026-02-27T19:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/780482\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:12:17","slug":"will-diego-pavia-get-drafted-vanderbilt-qb-defends-his-maturity-at-nfl-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/780482\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Diego Pavia get drafted? Vanderbilt QB defends his maturity at NFL combine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diego Pavia is one of the most polarizing prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>. On one hand, the former Vanderbilt star has the production and track record that one would expect of an early-round pick. He never had a losing season as a starting quarterback at the collegiate level and was a 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist after throwing for an SEC-leading 29 touchdowns and rushing for 10 more scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Pavia does carry some significant question marks into the draft process. During multiple media availabilities at the NFL<\/a> Scouting Combine on Friday, Pavia was pelted with questions about his maturity, an issue that often took the spotlight during his time with the Commodores.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Yeah, [Vanderbilt] coach [Clark] Lea always preached that your frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until you’re 25,” Pavia joked when fielding one question about his maturity. “I just turned 24, so I got like 360 more days to go.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Renner’s 2026 NFL Draft Big Board: Ranking the top 200 prospects as the NFL combine unfolds<\/p>\n

\n Mike Renner <\/p>\n

\"Renner's<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Pavia’s humor didn’t deflect the deluge. NFL front offices have likely had similar questions to what Pavia has faced in his public appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He issued an apology in December<\/a> after facing backlash after a social media post that stated “F-all the [Heisman] voters.” He was also spotted at a club partying with a “F— Indiana” sign in reaction to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who beat Pavia for the Heisman before leading the Hoosiers to a national title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pavia defended his reputation in an interview with CBS Sports<\/a>\u00a0by arguing that outsiders often confuse his confidence for arrogance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I want them to know, and the future teammates that I do have, that, game on the line, I got you. Don’t worry about it,” Pavia said. “That’s how I carry myself. I think people get caught up in my confidence for arrogance. But my confidence comes from my preparation of work that I put in in the offseason, the week of, just things like that. That’s what boosts me to have that extra edge on Saturday.”<\/p>\n

Pavia is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the 2026 draft class, something he can leverage in his interviews with NFL teams<\/a>. He played two years at New Mexico Military Institute, two at New Mexico State and two at Vanderbilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that time, he amassed a 47-22 record while throwing for 12,899 yards and 114 touchdowns with 4,210 yards and 46 touchdowns rushing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen a lot of football,” Pavia said. “I feel like I can process a defense really fast, get the ball where it needs to go, check us into good plays, stay out of bad plays. I feel like that’s how you stay on schedule, that second-and-6, third-and-short, that’s how you win football games.” \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diego Pavia is one of the most polarizing prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft. On one hand, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[331,110497,110498,7,6,927,109522,110495,15,15608,30,110496],"class_list":{"0":"post-780482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-diego-pavia-nfl","10":"tag-diego-pavia-nfl-draft","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-combine","14":"tag-nfl-combine-invite-list","15":"tag-nfl-combine-schedule","16":"tag-nfl-draft","17":"tag-nfl-draft-prospects","18":"tag-nfl-mock-draft","19":"tag-when-is-the-nfl-combine-this-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116144188074334391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780482","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=780482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}