Player Profile: What to Know About Diego Pavia Ahead of the NFL Draft – Sports Illustrated

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Former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s NFL dream may end up coming true at some point this afternoon on the final day of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Pavia has had a long journey to get to today. Starting playing collegiately at the JUCO level, Pavia willed his way to play quarterback at New Mexico State before playing at Vanderbilt for his final two seasons of his collegiate career. Not many football fans knew much before he came onto the scene at Vanderbilt, but Pavia was a driving factor into Vanderbilt’s turnaround.
Pavia took a 2-10 Vanderbilt team into a 10-3 team in two seasons. In his first season at Vanderbilt, he led the Commodores to a 7-6 season and a Birmingham Bowl victory in 2024 before helping them achieve their first 10-win season in program history this past season.
Here is what to know about Pavia as he takes his next step in his football career.
Pavia was a Heisman Trophy Finalist after throwing for 3,539 yards, 29 touchdowns and five interceptions. Pavia also showcased his skillset as a runner with 862 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns.
One thing that pops off about Pavia is one of his intangibles: his self-confidence. Pavia has been a player that has bet on himself when nobody would. Pavia is a quarterback that seems to welcome doubters due to the confidence and belief that he has in his abilities to play quarterback. It is a confidence that can maybe cross over into cockiness at times. But at the end of the day, Pavia has a belief in himself that he believes he will ultimately prevail over competition.
As a quarterback, Pavia was a dual-threat at Vanderbilt under offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s offense. Pavia showed flashes of his running ability and his ability to escape the pocket, buying time for his receivers down the field or take off running. When he does run, Pavia has an explosive element to his running game.
The aggressiveness he plays with can get to a fault, however. During his time at Vanderbilt, Pavia was never scared of contact and took some hits as a result. That is something that could hurt him at the NFL level.
As a thrower, Pavia showed he can make throws down the field. The thing about the Vanderbilt offense is that Pavia was able to run the offense at a quick tempo, which allowed his guys to get down the field faster and opened up for quick throws often. Accuracy-wise, there are not any big red flags. Pavia can hit receivers with accuracy on slants, posts or dig routes. When Pavia has the protection up front is when he can really make great downfield throws.
However, the red flag that everyone has pointed to – and perhaps rightly so – is his size. At the Senior Bowl, Pavia measured 5-foot-9 ⅞ inches and 198 pounds. Certainly for a NFL quarterback, that is not the desired size teams are looking for. In fact, Pavia’s size could turn teams off so much so to the point where he drops to very late in the final two rounds or if he would get drafted at all. The height is shorter than Kyler Murray and Bryce Young while his weight makes him one of the lightest quarterbacks this century, according to Mockdraftables.
From those measurements, Pavia is going to have to learn to wean off his aggressive nature by making the smart play rather than fighting to the last second. Sometimes it is just better to throw the ball away, slide or go out of bounds than diving forward an extra yard and risk taking a hard hit and thereby risk injury.
His size is something that he has no choice but to overcome. But if there is one thing about Pavia that can help him overcome the biggest critique about him, it is his underdog nature and belief in himself he has always had.
UPDATE: Diego Pavia was not drafted in this year's NFL Draft
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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