Potential Steelers draft prospect Kenny Pickett has historically small hands

Kenny Pickett finally got his hand size measured at the NFL Combine, and the results were more than concerning. Here’s how Steelers fans should feel about this.

Kenny Pickett is such an easy Cinderella story for Pittsburgh Steelers fans to get behind. After spending his first four collegiate years playing for the Pitt Panthers at Heinz Field, Pickett finally broke out in year five with a very impressive season.

Because of his development and Pittsburgh’s need at the quarterback position after the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, mocking Pickett to the Steelers became commonplace and it was something Pittsburgh fans really wanted to see happen.

Unfortunately, Pickett isn’t a perfect prospect, he will be 24 years before his first NFL training camp, and scouts have concerns about his velocity and overall arm talent. However, one of the most talked-about traits topics this offseason as it relates to Kenny Pickett is his hand size.

Eyebrows were raised when Pickett passed on getting his hands measured during the 2022 Senior Bowl. During interviews at the NFL Combine, the Pitt quarterback admitted that it was because he needed the extra time to do hand exercises in an effort to prepare them to be measured.

Now, the official results are in… and they’re more than just a little concerning. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah reported Thursday morning that Kenny Pickett’s hands officially measured in at just 8 1/2”.

This number places Pickett in the 0 percentile among quarterbacks since hand sizes were being measured all the way back in 1999. What’s concerning is that among the shortlist of quarterbacks with under 9″ hands, none of them ever found success in the NFL. Here’s the research that NFL personality, Marcus Mosher came up with:

I know many fans and even NFL front offices will brush this off as if it’s nothing, but it would be unwise to not at least consider this factor in your evaluation of Kenny Pickett. As a talent evaluator, it’s important to be able to look at each player from an objective lens — even when this comes to players you would love to see in the black and gold.

Hand size at the NFL Combine is measured by the distance between the tip of your thumb to the tip of your pinky when your hand is stretched out. To give you a visual of just how small 8 1/2” inches is, picture this: I am 5’11” and I have 9 1/2” inch hands. My wife is 5’7” and has 8 1/2” hands.

This is with neither of us doing ‘hand exercises’ for months leading up to us slapping our hands across a ruler. Pickett did measure in at just over 6’3”, which makes his tiny hands even more absurdly disproportionate to his height.

Why Steelers should consider Pickett’s hand size

As I mentioned, Pickett’s tiny hands should take the place of the rest of his evaluation, but they must be considered. The fact that there has never been a quarterback to have NFL success with hands as small as his certainly makes him an outlier.

In college, The Athletic’s NFL Draft analyst, Dane Brugler, reported that Pickett had a whopping 38 fumbles in college. This is certainly concerning. In addition, talent evaluators already had questions about his arm strength and velocity — particularly in his ability to drive the ball to the sidelines from the pocket.

Because of his insanely small hands, Pickett will be forced to wear gloves on his hands at all times at the next level — not to mention the NFL ball size is also bigger than it is in college.

I know everyone is going to have their own opinions on QB hand size and how important it is, and you are each entitled to your own opinions. I still like Kenny Pickett, but if turns out to be even a starting-level quarterback in the NFL, he will have the smallest hand size to ever do so.