Going into the NFL Draft Combine, usually all the hype is about the drills on the field. But this year it was all about the measurements, specifically about Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray. On Thursday morning, Murray had his official measurements taken, and he came in over the 5-foot-10 threshold:
Everyone has been talking about the height, but a lot of NFL executives were more worried about the hand size, which was measured at 9.5 inches.
There had been a lot of talk about how small Murray's hands were, and there were rumors swirling that his hand size was smaller than nine inches.
NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero talked to an NFC executive who broke it all down:
For all the talk about Murray’s height — and he’d certainly be an exception to every rule at a shade under 5-foot-10 — several scouts said the most interesting measurement will be Murray’s throwing hand.
“There’s not a quarterback in the NFL that has a smaller hand than like a 9 — a 9-inch hand, the span from the thumb to the pinkie,” an NFC executive said. “They say [Murray’s] could be really small, like 8 5/8 or 8 7/8. The difference (from other short QBs) would be like Russell Wilson’s is [10 1/4]. Drew Brees is like a 10 1/4.”
The next big step for Murray is the interviews with teams and how he performs in those. There has been more steam picking up that the Arizona Cardinals could select him with the first overall pick, but if that's not the case, it seems almost a sure bet that he will go in the first round, especially with these favorable measurements.