Jameis Winston struggles badly with his vertical; Mariota jumped 7.5 inches higher
Jameis Winston managed a lousy 28.5 inches in the vertical leap at the Scouting Combine on Saturday. As noted by Mike Mayock during the NFLN broadcast, that’s 2.5 inches below the average for quarterbacks from a year ago. And it’s a whopping 7.5 inches below the 36-inch skyrocket from Marcus Mariota.
According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, Winston’s hands were measured to be a small 9 and 3/8th inches.
ESPN.com contends that only two of 61 starting quarterbacks since 2006 have had hands that size or smaller: Colin Kaepernick and Teddy Bridgewater. But the ESPN.com numbers may not be accurate. According to a Rotoworld.com item from April 2014, Mike Vick’s hand measures only 8.5 inches. Tony Romo also is under nine inches, at 8.86. The same article says Aaron Rodgers has a 9.38-inch hand, which is only a hair about 9.375, the decimal equivalent of 9-3/8th inches.
NFL Draft Diamonds was created to assist the underdogs playing the sport. We call them diamonds in the rough. My name is Damond Talbot, I have worked extremely hard to help hundreds of small school players over the past several years, and will continue my mission. We have several contributors on this site, and if they contribute their name and contact will be in the piece above. You can email me at nfldraftdiamonds@gmail.com