Diego Pavia QB Vanderbilt |
NFL Draft Profile & Scouting Report
| Jersey: #2 PLAY STYLE: Dual Threat QB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Updated: 02/07/2026 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Draft Year: 2026 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FORTY time: 4.83 seconds (49%*) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowl Invite: Senior Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jersey: #2 | |
| PLAY STYLE: Dual Threat QB | |
| Last Updated: 02/07/2026 | |
| Draft Year: 2026 | |
| Forty time: 4.83 seconds (49%*) | |
| Bowl Invite: Senior Bowl | |
| Overall Rating: | 79.8 / 100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Average rating of opposition Defense player has faced | ||
| Defense Rating: |
|
80% |
| Click the links below to view how player ranks vs other prospects. | ||
| Release Speed: |
|
78% |
| Short Passing: |
|
82% |
| Medium Passing: |
|
87% |
| Long Passing: |
|
91% |
| Rush/Scramble: |
|
78% |
|
DRAFT PROJECTION:
UDFA
Overall Rank:
#250
Position rank:
#10 (QB)
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| College Games: 52 College Snaps: 2825 | ||
247 RATING: 76/100
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| Player Comparison* (Similarity level) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jordan Travis - Florida State |
|
71% |
| Stetson Bennett - Georgia |
|
68% |
| Cam Miller - North Dakota State |
|
68% |
Draft Profile: Bio
Diego Pavia from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was a three-sport standout at Volcano Vista High School where he wrestled, played baseball, and ran the football team's offense. He was good enough to lead Volcano Vista to an 11-0 regular season as a senior before falling in the state semifinals, and tough enough to reach the state wrestling finals three times, winning a title along the way. None of that was enough to earn an FBS scholarship. Without a single offer from the top level of college football, Pavia packed his bags for the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, where he won the starting job as a true freshman during the COVID-altered 2020 season. By 2021, he was throwing for 1,728 yards and 21 touchdowns with 658 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground, helping NMMI capture the NJCAA National Championship.New Mexico State gave Pavia his first crack at FBS football in 2022, where he appeared in 12 games with eight starts. He threw for 1,450 yards with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions, flashing enough dual-threat ability to earn Quick Lane Bowl MVP honors after torching Bowling Green for 167 passing yards, two touchdowns, and 65 rushing yards. The 2023 season was the full breakout. Starting all 15 games, Pavia racked up 2,973 passing yards with 26 touchdowns against nine picks while adding 923 rushing yards and seven scores. He led the Aggies to their first 10-win season since 1960, claimed Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year, and authored one of the program's most iconic moments when he carved up Auburn for three touchdowns and zero interceptions on 67.9% passing in NMSU's first-ever win over an SEC opponent.
Pavia followed head coach Jerry Kill to Nashville as a graduate transfer in 2024 and immediately transformed the Vanderbilt program. In his first season with the Commodores, he completed 177 of 298 passes for 2,293 yards with 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions while gashing defenses for 801 rushing yards and eight scores on the ground. The signature win came against top-ranked Alabama, where he went 16-of-20 for 252 yards and two touchdowns with 56 rushing yards, making him just the 13th starting quarterback since 2004 to beat both Auburn and Alabama in the same season. He earned SEC Newcomer of the Year and capped the year with a five-touchdown Birmingham Bowl MVP performance. In 2025, everything went to another level. Pavia completed 70.6% of his passes for 3,539 yards with 29 touchdowns and eight interceptions, rushed for 862 yards and 10 scores, and led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season in program history. He finished as the Heisman Trophy runner-up behind Fernando Mendoza, was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year, AP Newcomer of the Year, a CBS Sports All-America First Teamer, and became Vanderbilt's first All-America quarterback since Bill Wade in 1951. Over 52 career games across three programs, Pavia accounted for more than 70% of Vanderbilt's total offense in his final season, a mark no other Heisman finalist came close to touching.
Honors & awards
- 2025 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
Scouting Report: Strengths
- Put the tape on against Alabama. 16-of-20. Two touchdowns through the air, another 56 yards on the ground. That is not a fluke. This kid shows up when the lights come on.
- Runs a 4.6 and it shows on every designed carry. He hits the hole with real burst and runs angry through contact, not dancing around looking for the sideline.
- The ball jumps out of his hand. Three-quarters release with genuine velocity and a tight spiral, and he can really spin it on deep shots when he plants and lets it rip.
- Light feet in the pocket. No heel click, clean base, and he senses pressure before it arrives. Watch how he slides off the rush and keeps his eyes up. That part is natural.
- Went from a 59% completion rate to 70.6% in one offseason. That kind of jump tells you the kid is coachable and puts in the work. The rhythm game got noticeably better in 2025.
- 862 rushing yards and 10 scores is not some read-option gimmick. He takes hits, breaks tackles, and punishes linebackers who take bad angles. There is some dog in him as a runner.
- 52 games across three programs, SEC road environments, a Heisman stage, bowl games. Nothing rattles this guy. He has been through the wringer and keeps coming back tougher.
- Deep ball accuracy is the real surprise. When he trusts his mechanics and drives through his release, he can drop it in the bucket from 40-plus yards. That part of his game does not get talked about enough.
Scouting Report: Weaknesses
- Here is the deal: he measured 5-9 7/8 at the Senior Bowl. That is not 6-foot, which is what Vanderbilt had him listed at. At that height, throwing lanes disappear behind NFL offensive lines and you are playing the position blindfolded at times.
- 198 pounds soaking wet. He takes a beating as a runner and does not protect himself. You watch him lower his shoulder into linebackers and wonder how long that body holds up on Sundays.
- One read and go. The pocket can be perfectly clean and he is already looking to bail. NFL defensive coordinators will sit in coverage, let him scramble into trouble, and make him pay for it.
- Vanderbilt's offense was built on quick throws, screens, and predetermined reads. He has not been asked to work through full-field progressions consistently, and when defenses rotated coverages post-snap, he got fooled.
- Stares down his first read something fierce. Safeties at the next level will jump routes in their sleep against that kind of eye discipline. It is the one habit that could sink him fast.
Scouting Report: Summary
The Senior Bowl weigh-in changed everything for Pavia. When the tape came off the measuring stick at 5-9 7/8, two full inches shorter than his listed height at Vanderbilt, you could feel the air come out of his draft stock in real time. Kyler Murray and Bryce Young are the smallest quarterbacks to go high in the modern draft, and both measured at 5-10 1/8. Pavia does not even clear that bar. Whatever goodwill he built with a Heisman runner-up finish and 39 total touchdowns took a serious hit the moment that number went public.Finding a pro fit is genuinely difficult. In a traditional drop-back offense, his height creates throwing lane problems that no amount of coaching can fix. He cannot see over a 6-5 defensive end or a 6-3 linebacker dropping into a zone. The simplified scheme he ran at Vanderbilt, heavy on quick game and predetermined reads, masked a lot of those issues. But the NFL is a different animal. Defensive coordinators will force him to sit in the pocket, work through progressions, and throw into tight windows from behind a wall of bodies. His tendency to bail on clean pockets and stare down his first read only compounds the problem. You need a very specific offensive system built entirely around RPOs, boot action, and getting him outside the pocket to make this work, and even then, you are asking a 198-pound quarterback to survive contact against NFL defenders week after week.
The cold truth is that Pavia's draft range probably settled somewhere in the Day 3 conversation before the Senior Bowl, and that measurement may have pushed him toward the back end of it or off some boards entirely. He turns 24 before the draft, the same age as guys with multiple NFL seasons under their belt. He is a baller and a winner and the tape at Vanderbilt is fun to watch, nobody is arguing that. But the NFL has never drafted a quarterback this short in the modern era for a reason, and wishing that away does not change the reality of what he is up against. A team might take a late-round flier on the athleticism and the intangibles, but asking him to develop into a legitimate NFL starter requires a leap of faith that most front offices are not going to be willing to make.
Diego Pavia percentiles vs other Quarterbacks (NFL Combine historically - higher value represents better perfomance)
How other scouting services rate Diego Pavia (Overall Rank)
All Scouts AverageOverall Rank
247.3
All Scouts AveragePosition Rank
20.0
*Percentile Ranking in Player's Position Group (NFL Combine Historical Data): This percentile reflects how a player's specific statistics rank
in comparison to historical performances at the NFL Combine, specifically within their position group. A higher percentile indicates a better performance.
For instance, being in the 90th percentile for a particular stat means the player outperformed 90% of their peers in that category.
*Similarity Percentage: This percentage is calculated based on a comprehensive analysis of various factors, including height, weight, 40-yard dash times, on-field performance statistics, and overall player rating. The analysis is conducted against our database of draft prospects from 2021 to 2023. This similarity score helps in evaluating how closely a current prospect aligns with past prospects. It is important to note, however, that this score reflects similarities based on college production and attributes, and does not account for eventual success or performance in the NFL.
*Similarity Percentage: This percentage is calculated based on a comprehensive analysis of various factors, including height, weight, 40-yard dash times, on-field performance statistics, and overall player rating. The analysis is conducted against our database of draft prospects from 2021 to 2023. This similarity score helps in evaluating how closely a current prospect aligns with past prospects. It is important to note, however, that this score reflects similarities based on college production and attributes, and does not account for eventual success or performance in the NFL.