Grading Diego Pavia's performance at Vanderbilt football pro day – The Tennessean

Diego Pavia is famous for showing up and playing his best when the lights are brightest.
Well, the lights felt awfully dim at Vanderbilt football pro day on March 20.
Pavia’s journey en route to the 2026 NFL Draft brought him back to Vanderbilt for one last showcase alongside his former teammates, including tight end Eli Stowers. The Tennessean spotted representatives from 27 of the NFL’s 32 teams at the workout, though a representative from Vanderbilt said 31 teams were on hand in some capacity, with the lone holdout being the famously pre-draft-process-avoidant Jacksonville Jaguars. The hometown Tennessee Titans had two scouts on hand, and former Titans executive turned Patriots VP of player personnel Ryan Cowden attended as well.
By the time Pavia threw ― more than four hours into the session ― the crowd had thinned; some scouts headed inside for private meetings with other players. Those who left early didn’t miss all that much. Pavia showed off some good footwork, commanded the field well, connected on every short and intermediate pass with ease and looked fairly impressive throwing over the middle on some deeper post routes.
The deep stuff, though… that’s where Pavia struggled. The Tennessean charted 12 throws from Pavia that would be considered “deep balls.” Only three could’ve been fairly characterized as on-time and on-target throws that would’ve or should’ve been completed in live action. He overthrew on five of his misses and underthrew on four. On his most difficult attempt of the day, one where he rolled to his right and pivoted off his front foot before reversing field and rolling left, Pavia’s ball fluttered and hung in the air to a point where his receiver nearly had to backtrack to make the catch. Even with a rowdy crowd of teammates and family members on hand, the room was church silent after the rep.
The strength of Pavia’s game, in fairness, isn’t the sort of thing that would translate to a workout with no score, no physicality and no opponent. And, to be fair, Pavia isn’t graded as the kind of quarterback who should turn heads at a pro day. He’s ranked as the 262nd-best player and 12th-best quarterback in the draft class per the consensus big board. NFL.com grades Pavia as an “average backup or special-teamer” at the next level. ESPN.com doesn’t even have a grade on Pavia yet, and the draft’s a month away.
Pavia’s the topic here, so there was still some spectacle. Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward was on hand. Pavia and Ward share a personal QB coach in Darrell Colbert Jr. Comedian Theo Von was in attendance. Pavia ran his 40-yard dash in addition to the throwing session and looked fluid in his movement, but measurements and times were not made available to media in attendance.
Neither was Pavia, for what it’s worth. Because of the length of the event, the private meetings scheduled afterward and the flight schedules of the scouts trying to get home for the weekend, Pavia did not speak to reporters.
Stowers did, though, and he made quite the case for his teammate.
“I think it’s real simple,” Stowers said. “All the height stuff, all the size stuff, at the end of the day, it’s ‘Can the kid play football?’ Diego was the best player in college football last year. He led the entire country in total yards. He won 10 games and he got us to the point where we had two winning seasons back-to-back after having gone 2-10 the year before. He’s the reason that we had the mentality we could go out and win every single game. He’s the best leader I’ve ever been around. He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever been around. He always cares about everyone around him.
“You just watch him on film. This kid is an amazing football player. He will win you games at any level.”
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  [email protected]. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
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