The Largest QB Hands In The NFL Are Massive, But History Shows It Doesn’t Mean Much

• As the NFL Scouting Combine takes place this week, there is a lot of talk about hand size for quarterbacks.
• Although it is fun to look at the largest hands of all-time, history shows that it doesn’t really mean anything at all.
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With the 2021/22 NFL season having come to a close, it is officially time to turn attention to the NFL Draft in April. All of the collegiate All-Star games have been played and evaluation season is in full swing.

Throughout the week, top NFL prospects have been in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine. Of the many headlines that come from the event, quarterback hand size is one of the most anticipated.

This year, Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett dominated the news cycle for all of the wrong reasons. His hands are tiny.

While an obsession over hand size may seem silly, the concern with small hands is that a quarterback may be more prone to fumbling. If he can’t grip the ball as well, he might fumble more.

Small hands are often cause for concern and some teams may even choose to take a player off of their draft board because of the poor measurements.

However, history shows that there is little correlation between hand size and ball security.

Even this past season would tend to disprove the theory. Dak Prescott has the largest hands of all starting quarterbacks in the NFL and led the league in fumbles with 14.

In addition, rising NFL rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder, who is also at the combine, has 10-inch hands. He fumbled a lot while at Cincinnati.

At the end of the day, hand size may not matter.

Whether the length of a quarterback’s hands have anything to do with success in the NFL or not, it’s still an interesting topic of discussion. Particularly when a player’s hands are extremely small like Pickett, or extremely large like Jake Dolegala.

Dolegala, a career journeyman, went undrafted out of Central Connecticut State University in 2019. He had the largest hands of any quarterback to play in the NFL last season and they are absolutely massive.

Dolegala 2019 with the Bengals and then went from the Patriots to the Packers back to the Patriots back to the Packers to the Dolphins in 2020 and 2021. He has the second-largest handspan of all-time, behind only Jim Druckenmiller.

Druckenmiller measured-in at 11.25 inches.

Here is a list of the Top 50 largest hands in NFL history (inches):

1. Jim Druckenmiller — 11.25
2. Jake Dolegala — 11.125
3. Dak Prescott — 10.88
4. Cody Kessler — 10.88
5. Ryan Fitzpatrick — 10.75
6. Ryan Mallett — 10.75
7. Heath Shuler — 10.63
8. Nick Foles — 10.63
9. Chris Simms — 10.50
10. Scott Zolak — 10.50
11. Mark Sanchez — 10.50
12. Ryan Leaf — 10.50
13. Steve McNair — 10.50
14. Brett Hundley — 10.50
15. David Garrad — 10.50
16. Jordan Love — 10.50
17. Jake Lutton — 10.38
18. Austin Davis — 10.38
19. E.J. Manuel — 10.38
20. Brett Favre — 10.38
21. Russell Wilson — 10.25
22. Paxton Lynch — 10.25
23. Stan Humphries — 10.25
24. Dan McGwire — 10.25
25. Tee Martin — 10.25
26. Christian Ponder — 10.25
27. Kevin Hogan — 10.25
28. Brady Quinn — 10.25
29. Drew Brees — 10.25
30. Wally Richardson — 10.25
31. Sage Rosenfels — 10.25
32. Taylor Yates — 10.25
33. Chad Pennington — 10.25
34. Ryan Nassib — 10.18
35. Brad Johnson — 10.13
36. Matt Leinart — 10.13
37. Josh Allen — 10.13
38. Kyle Trask — 10.13
39. Tim Tebow — 10.13
40. Gardner Minshew — 10.13
41. Peyton Manning — 10.13
42. Matt Barkley — 10.08
43. Browning Nagle — 10.00
44. Bryce Petty — 10.00
45. Spergen Wynn — 10.00
46. Ryan Lindley — 10.00
47. Carson Wentz — 10.00
48. Patrick Ramsey — 10.00
49. Scott Tolzien — 10.00
50. Donovan McNabb — 10.00