For NFL prospects, hand size and wingspan matter as much as on-field performance

NFLFor NFL prospects, hand size and wingspan matter as much as on-field performanceTop college players may have the touchdowns and yards, but without the right measurables they may not be selected high in the draft by professional teams. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Zach Hackman for NBC News ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 22, 2026, 10:11 AM EDTBy Andrew GreifIn the months before the 2002 NFL draft, all kinds of metrics suggested Joey Harrington was bound to be a top-5 pick. As Oregon’s quarterback, he’d led his team near the top of the polls and become a finalist of college football’s biggest awards. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.It was an impressive body of work. But as he and fellow prospects waited inside an Indianapolis hotel that winter during the league’s annual scouting combine, no evaluation of Harrington was complete until NFL evaluators had also judged his actual body.“You literally have to stand in your underwear on a stage in front of a room full of executives that have their notepad out,” Harrington told NBC News. When evaluators from 32 teams gather in a room, not everyone sees the same thing. The players they’re scouting are already outliers: of the more than 1 million high schoolers who play football annually in the United States, fewer than 78,000 go on to play in college, with only 1,696 active roster spots in the NFL. Only 257 players are drafted annually. But that doesn’t mean all 300-plus players invited to the combine are sure things. A great draft pick can ensure years of success. An underperforming one can get an executive or coach fired. To be right more often than they’re wrong, teams have tried for decades to establish preferences of traits and measurables — beyond just height and weight — they believe will translate to the best odds of a player’s future success. Those preferences can vary from team to team, influenced by differing philosophies....