Diego Pavia is officially in the NFL after the Baltimore Ravens signed the former Vanderbilt quarterback to a three-year undrafted free-agent deal.
He was first headed to Baltimore’s rookie minicamp on an invitation, then quickly moved onto a full contract, and the Ravens later listed him among the club’s 19 undrafted rookie signings.
For fans searching Diego Pavia Ravens contract value, the important detail is that Baltimore has not publicly released the exact contract breakdown.
What can be estimated is the base salary path attached to a standard undrafted rookie deal.
Using the current NFL minimum salary scale, a player moving through those first three seasons would project at $885,000 in 2026, $1,050,000 in 2027, and $1,165,000 in 2028, which puts the deal at roughly $3.1 million in total base value if he stays on the roster long enough to reach each year.
Pavia was not expected to reach undrafted free agency at all. He finished as the 2025 Heisman Trophy runner-up, then still went unselected through all seven rounds.
He became the first Heisman finalist to go undrafted since 2014 and the first Heisman runner-up to go undrafted since 2003. For any quarterback, that is rare. For one coming off a season like his, it became one of the biggest surprises of the draft.
His final year at Vanderbilt gave NFL teams plenty to study. Pavia threw for 3,539 yards and 29 touchdowns, added 862 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns, and played his way into the national awards conversation as one of the most productive dual-threat quarterbacks in college football.
Vanderbilt’s own release on his Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award win called him the first Commodore ever to take that honor, while the Heisman Trust listed him as Vanderbilt’s first Heisman finalist after a season in which he led the school to its first 10-win season.
The broader résumé made the draft slide even more surprising. The Ravens’ official profile of Pavia says he played in 53 career games at Vanderbilt and New Mexico State, finishing with 10,255 passing yards, 88 touchdown passes, 27 interceptions, 3,096 rushing yards, and 31 rushing touchdowns.
He helped guide Vanderbilt to its 2024 upset of No. 1 Alabama, which stood as the program’s first-ever win over a Top 5 team. That kind of production usually pushes a quarterback into the draft board somewhere, even if it is later than expected.
The concerns that kept him from being drafted were more about projection than college results. Reuters reported that Pavia measured 5-foot-10 and 207 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, with evaluators also questioning whether his game would translate cleanly at the next level.
Size was part of the conversation. Arm talent and overall ceiling were part of it too. That did not erase the numbers or the awards, but it was enough to keep all 32 teams from spending a draft pick on him.
Baltimore still saw value in bringing him in. The Ravens did not draft a quarterback, then ended up signing two undrafted quarterbacks, with Pavia joining Joe Fagnano.
Both now hold spots on the team’s 90-man offseason roster, which means this is more than a camp flyer. At the same time, it is not security.
That roster still has to be cut to 53 before the regular season, and Baltimore already has Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley in the quarterback room.
That leaves Pavia in the part of the NFL process where contracts and opportunity do not always mean the same thing. The contract gets him in the building.
The next few months decide whether he lasts there.
For now, the value attached to his Ravens deal is best described as an estimated three-year total of about $3.1 million, with the usual undrafted-free-agent caveat that the exact guarantees have not been publicly detailed and the roster fight is only beginning.
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The best current estimate is about $3.1 million over three years, based on the NFL minimum salary structure for a rookie who remains under contract through those early seasons. Baltimore has not publicly disclosed the exact financial terms.
No. Pavia went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft and then signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent.
The main concerns centered on size and overall NFL projection. He measured 5-foot-10 and 207 pounds at the combine, and teams were still unsure how his game would translate at the pro level.
