Entering Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft, Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia remains a highly debated prospect. He measured exactly 5-foot-10 and 1/8 inches at the Combine, lacking the prototypical size teams covet. Yet his collegiate tape shows a relentless competitor who carried Vanderbilt to a historic season and earned a Heisman runner-up finish.
His family has also been a topic of conversation, from his rowdy brothers, Roel and Javier, to his mother, Antoinette Padilla.
Who Is Antoinette Padilla? Diego Pavia’s Mother Takes Center Stage
Padilla raised Pavia and his three siblings as a single mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She worked demanding shifts as a nurse to ensure her family stayed fed and supported. The financial sacrifices and grueling schedule established a standard of toughness that Pavia carried directly onto the football field.
“I didn’t grow up with a whole lot,” Pavia told reporters during his senior season. “My mom’s a single mom, and she’s the backbone of our family. When I didn’t have a whole lot, it was like, ‘What’s my way out?'”
Her belief in his athletic potential started very early on, as Padilla actively manufactured his first competitive advantage to accelerate his development. She falsified his age so he could face older, bigger competition in local youth leagues.
“My mom lied on my birth certificate,” Pavia revealed on The Pivot podcast. “When I was six years old, the minimum age you had to be was seven. So my mom lied on my birth certificate, and I played up.”
That early exposure to larger defenders forged his fearless play style. He routinely attacks linebackers rather than sliding, treating every rushing yard as a mandate rather than a metric.
“She raised me a winner,” Pavia said following a major upset victory. “My mom, she hates losing more than she loves winning.”
Padilla became a fixture during Vanderbilt’s broadcasts, drawing heavy camera time and sparking public complaints from prominent football analysts about the relentless coverage.
The broadcast spectacle peaked during Vanderbilt’s dominant 31-7 victory over South Carolina. Pavia publicly promised comedian Theo Von a date with Padilla if the Commodores secured the win. Von confirmed the wager on the live broadcast and shouted out Padilla’s profession as a nurse. Von has said that the two didn’t actually go on a date, but it became a fun running joke that went viral. The comedian later crashed Pavia’s interview on the “Nightcap” podcast with Padilla at his side.
Pavia’s NFL Draft Projection: Round 6, Round 7 or UDFA
PFSN’s lead NFL Draft analyst Ian Cummings shared his thoughts on Pavia’s projection entering Day 3.
“I see Diego Pavia going in the Round 6 or Round 7 range, if he is drafted at all. Ultimately, he could also slide into the priority free-agent pool,” Cummings noted. “If there’s one thing Pavia has going for him, it’s his competitive toughness.” In PFSN’s Day 3 mock draft, Pavia went undrafted.
An NFC scouting director told Pelissero “the whole schtick gets old” and compared Pavia to Johnny Manziel. An AFC quarterbacks coach acknowledged the toughness and the speed of operation but kept circling back to the size.
The Carolina Panthers brought Pavia in for a pre-draft visit. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported other teams are doing independent work. The question is whether these teams are evaluating him as a late-round pick or doing their homework on a potential UDFA.
Pavia posted a 94.8 PFSN QB Impact grade in 2025, which was the best in the nation. Last season, Pavia graded out better than Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson, both of whom were drafted in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams, respectively.
However, the big questions about Pavia are related to how his game will translate to the NFL.
“At 5’10”, 208 pounds, Pavia has below-average size. He’s not a great size-adjusted athlete, and he has poor arm strength,” Cummings wrote. “On top of that, his operational skill set leaves much to be desired. He’s a below-average processor whose vision falters on pure dropbacks, and while he’s generally accurate, he has a slimmer margin for error mechanically with his weaker arm.
“Pavia avoids ill-advised risks, and he boasts a juiced-up and gritty running style. His processing isn’t quite NFL-caliber, nor is his arm strength, and even his athleticism might not be as prevalent against NFL talent. Pavia has the desired mobility, toughness, and quick-game utility to function as an NFL backup, but his ceiling is likely capped beyond that.”
An offense built around Pavia’s defiance, play extension, and RPO identity at Vanderbilt isn’t one any NFL offensive coordinator is going to install for an older prospect with average arm strength and no standout physical markers.
The real irony of Pavia’s draft case is that going undrafted might serve him better than getting picked late. As a priority free agent, he controls his landing spot and picks the depth chart that gives him the cleanest developmental path. Picked in the seventh round, he lands where he’s told and sits behind whichever veteran the team already trusts.
On Saturday, all eyes will be on Pavia to see where one of the more interesting prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft will land.
