A quarterback definitely needs huge hands to be successful, unless he doesn’t

Back in 2014, there was an ESPN report about the importance of big hands for an NFL quarterback. There’s a lot of these reports every year, because the NFL Combine is an exercise in measurement, testing, and quantification, and all of those measurements and tests have to have some purpose.

In the ESPN story, Scott Pioli, the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons and former vice president of player personnel for the New England Patriots, lamented a bad decision he was part of during his Patriots tenure. They drafted a quarterback with small hands.

Kliff Kingsbury was great in college, but Pioli regretted not paying attention to the man’s small hands, which would have let them know at the time he would be unsuccessful, since the common sense is arger hands help a quarterback grip the ball more firmly. Especially in bad weather. (Hue Jackson, who told reporters recently he likes a QB with a 10-inch hand, agrees!) Pioli contrasted Kingsbury — who had the smallest hands at the combine — with Tom Brady, who has huge, enormous hands (the biggest hands) and was famously drafted in the sixth round because everyone knew he would be successful:

“We asked him to come to New England in inclement weather and try to throw the football and control the football; where you have someone like Tom Brady, who has an enormous hand ... You look at the pictures of Tommy holding a football, part of his accuracy is based on his hand size.”

That same ESPN story references Ryan Mallett, who had the largest hands among quarterbacks of the 2011 combine, with his hands measured at 10 3/4 inches. Mallett is of course a well known superstar in the NFL who has enjoyed enormous success with the Patriots, Texans, and the Ravens, starting a total of eight games and throwing for a career total nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Mallett joins other notable huge hands success stories such as Johnny Manziel (9 7/8), Mark Sanchez (10 1/2), E.J. Manuel (10 3/8), Christian Ponder (10 1/4), Tim Tebow (10 1/8), Blaine Gabbert (10), Josh Freeman (10), T.J. Yates (10 1/4), Paxton Lynch (10 1/4), Nate Sudfeld (9 7/8), and Jacoby Brissett (9 3/4).

Then again, other QBs with big hands include Russell Wilson (10 1/4), Drew Brees (10 1/4), Carson Wentz (10), Logan Thomas (10 7/8), Cam Newton (9 7/8),Ben Roethlisberger (9 7/8), Dak Prescott (10 7/8).

It’s almost like quarterbacks having a big set of hands doesn’t mean much of anything when determining if a QB is going to be good or not.

Sam Darnold, who is widely considered the best quarterback in this year’s draft is measured at 9 3/8), an average size, which puts him right in the middle of this group:

So from everything that we know about hand size and future success, and even by just looking at this group of quarterbacks in particular, we can definitely say that Darnold will be successful ... or not. His lack of big hands means that he is destined to fail like Paxton Lynch or succeed Carson Wentz. It’s just common sense that without enormous hands, there is no hope for him. Unless there is.

Something that was clear with the case of Deshaun Watson, whose hands were big, just not as big as Lynch’s. It’s just common sense.