Despite Past Controversy, Diego Pavia is Getting A Clean Slate With Baltimore Ravens
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The name and the noise precede former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia everywhere he goes these days. The spectacle surrounding him is too polarizing for anything else to be the case. His past is too noteworthy for anything else to be the case.
Yet, none of that mattered as Pavia wore a No. 17 jersey and ran through drills while showing off his new frosted tips in Owings Mills, Maryland, on Saturday. Ravens coach Jesse Minter admits that some things in Pavia’s past could’ve been handled differently–and better, bluntly–but he didn’t see those things as he watched Pavia on Saturday.
Instead, he saw him solely as a football player.
“We'll let him come in with a little bit of a clean slate and just give him a platform,” Minter said on Good Morning Football. “But, again, any rookie undrafted free agent -- come in and work. Let what you do on the field and by your actions show who you really are.”
Minter was Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator early in Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea’s tenure and says he considers Lea a close friend. Lea told Vandy on SI prior to the NFL draft that he believes Pavia could put together a long NFL career regardless of what happened on draft day. Lea likely pushed along a similar message to Minter as the Ravens evaluated Lea’s former quarterback.
As Minter speaks about Pavia, he refers to him as a force multiplier and says that he came into Vanderbilt’s program at a time in which it needed someone like him to lead the way. Minter says Pavia makes everyone in the building better and is among the first inside it as well as one of the last people to leave it each day.
Pavia led Vanderbilt to a program-best 10-3 record in his final season at Vanderbilt while throwing for 3,529 yards, 29 touchdowns and eight interceptions two years following its 2-10 season that caused it to entirely retool its coaching staff. The season was good enough to put Pavia in the Heisman Trophy race, but not good enough for him to avoid being the rare Heisman finalist to avoid hearing his name called.
The Heisman Ceremony incident–in which Pavia declared “f*** all the voters”--was too much for that to be the case. So were the number of controversial quotes he threw out there in his two seasons at Vanderbilt. The spectacle that surrounded him and his family made an impact, too. Pair those things with Pavia being as undersized as any starting quarterback in NFL history while not having standout athleticism or arm strength, and the odds are stacked against him.
Minter and the Ravens are giving Pavia a chance to prove himself, though. They’re not naive enough to ignore those things entirely, but they’re treating Pavia as a prospect rather than a spectacle as he goes through spring workouts. Minter has watched enough Vanderbilt over the years to believe that counting Pavia out entirely and not giving him a chance at all isn’t something that is in anyone’s best interest.
Pavia’s not guaranteed anything as he takes snaps alongside other undrafted free agents and looks to find his way into a third-string role behind Ravens’ star Lamar Jackson and established backup Tyler Huntley, but he’s got a chance to earn a roster spot.
That’s good enough for now.
"Now he's in the door and it's like, 'Show us what you can do,'" Minter said Saturday. “For us, we see it as an opportunity to bring a player in that could potentially be something, and that's really what this is for us."
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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