INDIANAPOLIS ― Diego Pavia is still Diego Pavia.
“I’m a man on a mission,” Pavia told reporters at the NFL scouting combine on Feb. 27. “I’ve dreamed about this since I was a kid, so I’m excited for this opportunity and super grateful for it too.”
That’s the duality of Pavia, the Vanderbilt football legend, All-America quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist who’s found a funny way of showcasing self-reflective humility and otherworldly bravado in alternating breaths. The NFL draft scouting process is notorious for picking at players’ most trivial shortcomings. So here’s Pavia, a player with a big, brash personality capable of rubbing some folks the wrong way who’s severely undersized and who thrived in a college offense that doesn’t much resemble what the pros do.
And yet, he’s still Pavia. The scrutiny, and the rumor mill, don’t seem to be getting to him.
He says the coaches and scouts he’s spoken to seem to love his “tenacity” and “the fight.” He says teams haven’t asked him about his controversial social media post following the Heisman ceremony because they “kind of know the situation already.” He says teams haven’t asked him about changing positions or playing more of a gadget role rather than sticking at quarterback as a pro. He says he hasn’t spent much time contemplating how he’ll adjust to having to live life as a backup without the spotlight shining on him.
“It’s the life of an underdog, you know?” Pavia said when asked how teams are perceiving him. “That’s for sure. They ask questions, but you go back and you look at my record, there ain’t nothing on my record.”
The humble and grateful side of Pavia is still gushing about his Vanderbilt experience. He calls coach Clark Lea one of the “best people in the world.” He credits Lea and assistant coaches Jerry Kill and Tim Beck for being able to tell him when he’d done something wrong or when he’d crossed a line and for keeping him focused on the process. He says he needs Lea and Vanderbilt to keep winning so that his former teammates can follow in his footsteps as combine participants in the future and so he’ll have good teams to come back and support.
Pavia knows how he’s selling himself. He says he thinks his mind and his processing skills are underrated. He’s as confident as ever, and he draws his confidence from his process. He thinks that there are a lot of misconceptions about him, and he blames “clickbait” culture for leading people to drawing oversimplified conclusions about him.
More than anything, he wants to be known as the consummate teammate.
The good news for him is one of his former teammates sees him in exactly that light.
“I don’t think people understand how hard of a worker he is and how good of a leader he is,” said Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers. “That’s what you want in a quarterback on your team. He will not let anybody out-work him and he’s going to hold the standard and hold people up to that standard as well. Y’all have seen his film. He’s a baller. He gets stuff done.”
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
