After closing the book on his final season at Vanderbilt, Diego Pavia called his shot: his next stop is the NFL. While confidence isn’t the question, the lone concern scouts circle back to is his size. At 5-foot-9, he sits on the shorter end of the NFL QB spectrum. While it’s the one box critics check and the doubt that follows him, it’s also the challenge that could push the QB to make NFL history.

“Diego Pavia could become the second shortest QB in NFL History,” reported Bleacher Report CFB on Monday.

At that height, Pavia would be the second-shortest QB in league history. Only Eddie LeBaron, back in the 1950s, stood smaller. But don’t worry about the height; Doug Flutie, at 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10, proved QBs can thrive at that stature. Although Vanderbilt lists Pavia at 6-foot, the Senior Bowl revealed the real story.

Now, while Diego Pavia checks in at 5-foot-9, photos and firsthand encounters confirmed it. With that size, few QBs have conquered in the NFL, so it’s a steep mountain for the Vandy QB, no doubt. However, the smaller frame is also the spark that could ignite NFL history. And Pavia’s college track record ensures the Heisman runner-up has that level of potential.

The 23-year-old QB just closed his sixth college season, a journey that took him from two years at New Mexico Military to two at New Mexico State before landing at Vanderbilt in 2024. However, Pavia’s peak came in 2025. He set career highs across the board with 3,539 passing yards and 29 TDs through the air, along with 10 rushing scores.

With talent like that on display, it’s no wonder his QBR of 87.3 ranked fourth in the nation, while he led Vanderbilt to a 10-3 record, delivering arguably the program’s best season in over a century. Obviously, he missed out on the Heisman to IU’s Fernando Mendoza, but his effort didn’t go unnoticed. Diego Pavia won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and earned first-team All-SEC honors.

To cap it off, he was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year and an AP second-team All-American. Yet even with that resume, the NFL projections are harsh. A late-round pick or even going undrafted looms because of his size. But size is just a number, as the NFL has shown. Obviously, it gives NFL scouts a second thought before picking him.

Although the quarterback remains confident, he should be selected in the upcoming NFL Draft, especially given his production and stats. Still, Vanderbilt’s official projection took a hit when Pavia’s Senior Bowl measurements were revealed, sparking a wave of backlash from fans.

Diego Pavia under fire after true height revealed

There’s no doubt about Diego Pavia’s talent, and the quarterback did everything he could in college to boost his NFL Draft stock. He put his ability on full display and left little room for questions about his production. But his Senior Bowl measurements shifted the narrative.

The reveal of his true size cast a shadow over his NFL outlook, raising fresh concerns among scouts. Here, fans were quick to weigh in as well, flooding social media with opinions as the debate around Pavia’s future heated up.

“Funny how yall think he’s gonna do anything in the nfl lmao,” wrote one fan, while another kept it blunt, saying, “yeah hes not an nfl player lmao.”

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As size became the talk of the town around Diego Pavia’s NFL path, the situation grew even tougher due to Vanderbilt’s incorrectly listed measurements. That discrepancy sent fans into a frenzy, sparking backlash online and putting both the quarterback and the program under intense scrutiny.

“I thought they were better at math at Vanderbilt than they really are,” stated one fan, while another put the whole conference in jeopardy, stating, “The sec should be ashamed.”

Even when he was listed at 6-foot, the QB still faced doubts because of his size. But Baker Mayfield dealt with the same questions before the Cleveland Browns selected him No. 1 overall in the iconic 2018 QB draft, proving height isn’t always a deal-breaker. That leaves a path for Diego Pavia to continue his football journey. But once his true 5-foot-9 measurement was revealed, the spotlight shifted, placing Vanderbilt under fire and reigniting the debate around his NFL future.

“Was he out there wearing platform cleats and the helmet when Vandy measured or what,” wrote one frustrated fan, taking a shot at the program, while another kept it short but biting, writing, “Wow he’s tiny.”

But “tiny” isn’t a deal-breaker, just ask Kyler Murray. A 5-foot-10 dynamo with skills that could’ve made him a baseball star, he’s been called”tiny” his whole career. Yet every time he takes the field, he shatters that label. Now we’ll see whether Pavia can do the same in the NFL.