Because teams have weird ways of evaluating prospects, the NFL combine and college Pro Days often end up with some truly bizarre things happening.
One of the more unusual sights you'll see in such a forum took place Monday.
Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett is expected to be one of the first quarterbacks selected in next month's draft. But one of the biggest criticisms of Pickett is his hand size, which is thought to be small enough that teams might be skeptical of drafting him.
Pickett's hand size actually "grew" a little bit from the combine to his Pro Day. That development was shadowed by a viral clip of multiple members of the Carolina Panthers organization observing the quarterback palming a football and assessing his hands.
It was a ridiculous sight, but NFL Media's Ian Rapoport indicated Tuesday on the "Pat McAfee Show" that the Panthers didn't technically request to see Pickett's hands.
"No, no, no. Hold on. Let me correct the record: they did not ask to see his hands, they did not ask to measure his hand size. He was brought over to them to look at his hand size. Scott Fitterer was checking it out, then he pointed it out to Ben McAdoo," Rapoport said. "They didn't ask for it, somebody brought him over and said show them your hands. At that point they took a look at his hands and we're like oh, they look like hands. And that was really the end of that.
"It's funny, because what I heard was they basically were like 'I think we're going to go viral' and then they went viral looking at his hand size. Which, I know it's a joke and I think hand size is comical, but it is a thing. Like, if he's going to go to Pittsburgh, he's going to have to be able to hold a football in rainy and cold weather."
As Rapoport alludes to, there is some purpose to measuring hand size. But, ultimately, Pickett would have to have some truly diminutive hands if a team passed on him for that reason.
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