Jalen Milroe's hands grew by more than 1/2 inch since the Senior Bowl

Former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has undergone a growth spurt.

From the Senior Bowl to the Scouting Combine, Milroe’s hands have grown. And not by a little. By more than 1/2 of an inch.

Before, the distance from tip of his pinkie to the end of his thumb was 8 and 3/4 inches. After, Milroe’s hand has sprouted to 9 3/8 inches.

It’s not the first time a quarterback’s hands have grown during the pre-draft process. Three years ago, quarterback Kenny Pickett’s hands grew by 1/8th of an inch, from 8 and 1/2 inches to 8 and 5/8th inches between the Combine and his Pro Day workout. Frankly, the Pickett difference might have been a matter of measurement variance, or something as simple as one measurer rounding down and one rounding up. (The fractions rarely if ever are smaller than 1/8th.)

In 2016, quarterback Brandon Allen’s hand expanded to the same extent as Milroe’s, from 8 and 1/8th inches at the Senior Bowl to 8 and 7/8th at the Combine.

There are ways to make the gap from thumb to pinkie wider. The better approach would be to perform the exercises before the first time the player’s hand is measured. Unless he’s committed to continuing indefinitely whatever he did to make his hand bigger, the hand might revert to the size that it was when it was initially measured. Which makes the original number somewhat indelible.

And there’s nothing wrong with doing whatever it takes to get the best possible measurements, whether it’s height or hand size or arm length of time to run 40 yards in a straight line. The tape shows whether a guy can play. The pre-draft measurables represent pro football’s original foray into analytics.

Like all aspects of analytics, sometimes they accurately predict the future. Sometimes, they don’t.

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