Less than three weeks after concern about the size of Kenny Pickett’s throwing hand broke out at the NFL combine, something changed: his hand grew an eighth of an inch.
Back on March 3, Pickett’s right hand clocked in at eight and a half inches, sparking discussion about whether the size of his hands would hurt his draft stock. When evaluated again on Monday at his Pro Day, the 23-year-old posted a measurement of eight and five-eighths inches, according to NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala.
Although Pickett’s hand growth might sound shady, an increase isn’t unheard of. Bills quarterback Josh Allen saw his throwing hand grow three-eighths of an inch as a result of massage therapy, while Pickett credited his sudden jump to routine stretches since the combine.
“Yeah, hopefully put the questions to bed,” he told Kinkhabwala after his workout, when asked about the hand measurement. “If people have more questions, I don’t know what else to say, what else to do. But yeah, it is what it is.”
The increase of Pickett’s hand size is significant because his measurement at the combine sparked some serious concern. He tied for the third-smallest hand measurement of any quarterback at the combine since 2003 and only two quarterbacks that played in 2021, Bills’ Jake Fromm and Bengals’ Brandon Allen, posted measurements under nine inches at their combine.
The NFL draft is rapidly approaching, leaving Pickett without much time to stretch out his hand before teams have to make a decision on him in late April. If he’s able to do so, he could wind up attracting far more attention from around the league.
