Diego Pavia's road to the NFL has been one twist after another, and it just took another hard turn. The Vanderbilt star who finished as 2025 Heisman Trophy runner-up went undrafted this spring, then landed a 3-year deal with the Ravens as a long-shot depth arm behind Lamar Jackson. Now, with training camp set to open July 29, Baltimore has waived him.
Adam Schefter broke the news that the Ravens had waived Pavia.
Ravens waived QB Diego Pavia.
Pavia's fall out of the draft was already one of the stranger stories of the offseason. He led Vanderbilt to a 10-win season and finished second in Heisman voting, but his 5-foot-10 frame and questions about arm talent scared teams off completely. He became the first Heisman finalist to go undrafted since Jordan Lynch in 2014, and the first runner-up specifically to go unpicked since Iowa's Brad Banks back in 2003. Baltimore scooped him up as an undrafted free agent afterward, giving him a shot to fight for the No. 3 job behind Jackson.
That competition reportedly came down to veteran Skylar Thompson and undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano out of Connecticut, with Pavia squeezed out entirely. But according to Scott Barrett, Pavia wasn't just keeping pace in that QB room, he was outplaying the reigning MVP himself in camp reps, to the point it was allegedly rattling Jackson's confidence.
Scott Barrett claimed Pavia was outplaying Lamar Jackson in camp, half-joking that it played into the decision to cut him.
Pavia was so clearly Baltimore’s best QB in camp it was messing with Lamar’s confidence too much and they had to cut him )):
Take that one with the appropriate grain of salt. It reads more like a wink at Jackson's well-worn confidence questions than a literal front-office confession, and no team is cutting a roster hopeful because he's outshining a former MVP with a $260 million extension. The far more mundane explanation, per Jamison Hensley's reporting, is a numbers game: Baltimore needed a roster spot, in this case reportedly to bring in veteran center Ethan Pocic, and the third-string QB battle simply wasn't going Pavia's way against Thompson.
Schefter followed up with more detail on the corresponding roster move behind the waiver.
More about the Ravens waiving QB Diego Pavia before training camp opens, via @jamisonhensley: https://t.co/w0z3IdDH7f
Still, the symbolism stings. Pavia went from Heisman stage to draft-day snub to an NFL waiver wire in the span of a few months, all while his viral pre-draft moment, standing at chest-level with his center during a workout because of his height, became a punchline he couldn't shake. Now he's a free agent again, and it's fair to wonder if any team wants to take a flyer on a guy who reportedly had coaches' attention in Baltimore's building even if he never got the QB2 nod.
For the Ravens, this is a footnote in a much bigger picture: Jackson is still the guy, camp opens in less than a week, and Thompson and Fagnano will now fight it out for that third quarterback spot. But Pavia's whole pre-draft-to-pro arc has been a magnet for internet attention, and this cut guarantees his name stays in the conversation a little longer.