MOBILE, Ala. — Kenny Pickett was the only of the six quarterbacks at the Senior Bowl to not have his hand size measured, and it sparked the annual “top quarterback has small hands, what’s that mean for his career” discussion.
Pickett himself isn’t worried about his hand size, he said having played in Pittsburgh over the past five years has shown he has the ability to handle the ball in both cold weather and the elements.
“I think it’s the number one thing you hear about quarterbacks in the draft process you hear every year is hand size,” Pickett said. “The good news is I played in Pittsburgh. Anyone that’s been to Pittsburgh knows it’s not the nicest place to play in October and November. I have experience playing in tough weather.”
With a double-jointed hand, something he showed off to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Pickett is working on mobility exercises in order to help his hand size measurement be as accurate as possible when he does have his hands evaluated in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine.
“I didn’t measure in this week,” Pickett said. “I just want to get the most accurate measurement I can. I’m working on mobility things. I just want to work mobility things. I’ll measure it in Indy at the combine and that’ll be it.”
With the Pittsburgh weather, and a handful of ACC games played in equally if not colder environments across the northeast, throughout his entire career, Pickett has managed well — especially as a senior.
One of those games came in November of his senior season against North Carolina and fellow 2022 NFL Draft prospect Sam Howell in a night game at Heinz Field.
“Probably the heaviest rain game that I’ve played in,” Pickett said. “Me and Sam talked about it. It was actually one of the first things we talked about, that game, when we got down here together. …. It was pretty bad the whole way, but definitely as the game went, it got worse.”
With the game on the line in overtime, when the cold rain fell as hard as it had all night, Pickett fired a perfect ball over the middle to Lucas Krull for the go-ahead touchdown.
With 346 yards and three touchdowns on the night, completing just about 60 percent of his throws, Pickett faired pretty well in the cold and rain. And faired a bit better than Howell too.
Editor’s note: Alan Saunders contributed to this report from Mobile, Ala.
