The harsh truth about Diego Pavia signing a three-year deal with the Ravens – FanSided

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Despite not hearing his name called on draft weekend, Diego Pavia has found a home, completely justifying everything he did in college … right? Well, not so fast. While it's true that the Baltimore Ravens have signed the Heisman finalist to a three-year deal, that definitely does not mean he's the future Lamar Jackson replacement.
Heck, it doesn't even mean Pavia will make the final roster. Sure, it's a good first step, but it's not really a guarantee of anything.
Obviously, Jackson is the starting quarterback in Baltimore. He's a perennial MVP candidate, and while he definitely has some flaws, as long as he is on that roster he's the guy the Ravens will build everything around. At his best, Jackson is a top-three NFL quarterback.
Where questions start to arise are with the backup role. Right now, that role belongs to Tyler Huntley, and there's really no reason to think a rookie will unseat him. Jackson seems to always find a way to miss some time, as he's played all 17 games just once in his career. You want an experienced quarterback behind him so that you have a shot at keeping your playoff hopes alive if Jackson is out for a couple of weeks (or worse).
But it's always good to have a young quarterback in the building, even if that young quarterback is likely destined for the practice squad. Signing Pavia gives him a chance to compete for that role. Note I said "compete," though.
That's because Pavia wasn't the only UDFA rookie that the Ravens added; UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano was also brought into the building after the NFL Draft. Pavia is probably the more talented of the two, but that doesn't at all mean he's going to beat out Fagnano. The deeper down the roster you go, the more you have to consider the full package, not just the raw talent.
Why did a Heisman finalist go undrafted? Well, there are a few primary reasons.
Pavia was really good in his final season at Vanderbilt, throwing 29 touchdown passes and completing 70.6 percent of his pass attempts. The rise in completion percentage felt especially notable.
Season
Completion Percentage
2022
53.2
2023
60.4
2024
59.4
2025
70.6
So, I think there's definitely some "one great season doesn't erase the three previous years of inconsistency" thing. Pavia was a high-risk, high-reward passer earlier in his career who cut some of the high-risk stuff out in 2025, but there's no guarantee that accuracy concerns don't return.
He's also undersized. He measured at 5-foot-9 at the NFL Combine, which is really small for an NFL quarterback. It's smaller than Kyler Murray, and his size has been a consistent issue throughout his NFL career. Someone at Pavia's height being a success would be a major outlier, and teams rightly didn't want to spend a draft pick on that faint possibility.
Age is an issue as well. Pavia is already 24 years old; there are quarterbacks with multiple years under their belt in the NFL who are younger, and while Tyler Shough found success last year as an older prospect, he was far more pro-ready.
Then there's the off-field stuff. Depending on who you ask, Pavia is somewhere between "overly confident" and "annoyingly smug." He has a way of getting under the skin of basically everyone, and maturity concerns were a key issue during the pre-draft process. It's not surprising at all, after factoring in all these things, that Pavia went undrafted and is now fighting for the No. 3 role in Baltimore with another undrafted quarterback. He's the classic example of a guy who was good in college but just isn't the right fit fot the NFL.
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