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

To be a top selection in the NFL draft, prospects must not only be good on the field. They also need the right hand size, wingspan and 40-yard dash time.

In 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.

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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.