The entire “hand size” myth has been thoroughly debunked time and time again, but it’s
Madden 24 coins a fallacy that teams buy into. Teams having bizarre arbitrary measurements for what “proper sized hands” are has unquestionably led to prospects sliding in the draft.
Hell, look at Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater was seen as a lock to be a Top 10 pick for the majority of his final season at Louisville. Hell, he threw for 4,000 yards, completed 71 percent of his passes, tossed 31 TDs and only 4 interceptions. Every sign pointed him to being an absolute stud in the Madden NFL 24. Then the combine rolled along and suddenly everyone freaked out about his 9.25” hands. The entire “small hands” argument reached a fever pitch, and on draft day Bridgewater fell to the 32nd pick, taken after Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel — both of whom flamed out, while Teddy is still starting for Madden NFL 24 teams.
We may never know if Bridgewater’s hands really caused his stock to plummet, but there’s at least a decent chance that it played a role — as dumb as it was.
Enter Kenny Pickett. Pickett isn’t nearly as attractive a prospect as Bridgewater. He had a great season for Pitt, but nobody has been as sold on Pickett as they were on Bridgewater. Now we get to the hand size. Pickett’s hands measured 8.5”, believed to be the smallest of any top QB prospect ... ever.
It’s clear Pickett was aware he was going to suffer the same draft fate as Bridgewater, which is why he didn’t allow his hands to be measured at the Senior Bowl. Instead, Pickett made an excuse that a double-jointed thumb wouldn’t adequately return an accurate hand measurement, which I’ll give top marks for creativity, if nothing else.
Pickett didn’t blow anyone away with a 4.73 in the 40, and while he was accurate in throwing drills, there was nothing he did that was spectacular enough to change anyone’s mind.
Pickett has a really good arm, an Madden NFL 24 arm, but not a cannon. All of this, paired with the surreal argument about his hands, could push him down the board unfairly. From top-to-bottom this weekend was about sealing his spot as the No. 1 QB in this class, and that didn’t happen. In fact, Pickett has likely been jumped by the next player we’re talking about.
Nobody had a better weekend in Indianapolis that Malik Willis, given the stakes. It’s been a hell of a
Buy mut 24 coins xbox pre-draft process for Willis in general, and that only intensified at the combine.