Diego Pavia was not drafted over the weekend, but there’s still some potential demand for his services.
The undersized Vanderbilt QB accepted an invite to Ravens minicamp on a tryout basis after not being selected during the three-day, seven-round 2026 NFL Draft.
“I’m sure that he’s disappointed that he didn’t get drafted, of course,” ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter said on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Monday. “The Ravens minicamp is this weekend, but there are other teams that have their minicamps the next weekend. There are other teams that wanna bring him in if the Ravens don’t sign him. … So he’s got a couple of invitations and we’ll see where he winds up on a roster.”
McAfee also posited the Heisman Trophy finalist could spend a few weeks in the UFL to further make his NFL case.
What Pavia bings to the field isn’t in question: he threw for 29 touchdowns and added 10 more on the ground in leading the Commodores to a 10-3 mark en route to winning the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the best upperclassman quarterback in college football, as well as being named a first-team All-American and SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
“Can the kid play football?” Vandy tight end and Eagles second-round pick Eli Stowers said of his QB at the school’s pro day. “And Diego was the best player in college football last year. He led the entire country in total yards. I mean, he won 10 games and got us to the point where we had two winning seasons back-to-back after going 2-10 the year before.”
Off the field, however, there are hesitations about the Albuquerque, N.M. native.
His vitals — 24 years old and standing at 5-foot-10 — aren’t optimal for an NFL quarterback, and he comes with a brash persona.
Pavia famously posted “F–K ALL THE VOTERS” on social media after Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman over him.
Still, the skills were enough to buy him some lottery tickets — and now he’ll have the chance to cash them in.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
