Redskins Draft Brandon Scherff With Fifth Overall Pick

For Immediate Release
April 30, 2015


REDSKINS DRAFT BRANDON SCHERFF WITH FIFTH OVERALL PICK


LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – The Washington Redskins selected offensive lineman Brandon Scherff in the first round (No. 5 overall) of the 2015 NFL Draft.

Scherff (6-5, 319) played four seasons at Iowa, where he appeared in 43 games with 36 starts. Last season, Scherff started all 13 games in which he appeared, earning unanimous consensus All-American honors and being named first-team All-Big Ten for the second consecutive season. He received the Outland Trophy, awarded annually to the best interior lineman by the Football Writers Association of America, and was named the Rimington-Pace Offensive Lineman of the Year in the Big Ten conference.

During his junior season in 2013, Scherff started in all 13 games in which he appeared and earned second-team All-American honors from the Football Writers Association of America. He also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors from league coaches, Sporting News, Phil Steele and others, in addition to being named a second-team All-Big Ten selection by league media and Athlon Sports.

As a sophomore in 2012, Scherff started in all seven games in which he appeared and played every offensive snap in six games. During his freshman year in 2011, he started in three of the 10 games in which he appeared, earning Big Ten Conference All-Freshman honors from BTN.com.

Scherff, 23, attended Denison (Iowa) H.S., where he played offensive and defensive lineman in his final two seasons after playing quarterback as a sophomore. A multi-sport athlete, he also participated in baseball, basketball, tennis and track and field. He was born on Dec. 26, 1991.

NOTES ON THE SELECTION OF BRANDON SCHERFF

· Scherff is the first selection in the tenure of General Manager Scot McCloughan and the ninth selection of the Jay Gruden era.
· Scherff is the 440th selection made by the Redskins in the Common Draft era (since 1967) and the 26th first-round selection in that time frame. He is the 57th first-round selection by the Redskins all-time since the institution of the draft in 1936.
· Scherff is the third offensive lineman selected by the Redskins in the first round since 2000. The Redskins’ last two first-round offensive linemen – Chris Samuels (No. 3 in 2000) and Trent Williams (No. 4 in 2010) – have combined for nine Pro Bowl selections.
· Scherff’s selection at No. 5 represents the highest the Redskins have selected an offensive lineman since drafting Williams with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.
· Scherff is the fourth offensive lineman drafted by the Redskins in the first round in the Common Draft era, joining Williams, Samuels, Andre Johnson (1996) and Mark May (1981).
· Scherff is the 15th University of Iowa product selected by the Redskins all-time, joining B Al Couppee (1942), B Jim Smith (1947), E Herb Shoener (1947), T Don Winslow (1950), T Hubert Johnston (1952), B Don Dobrino (1957), G Frank Bloomquist (1958), QB Mitch Ogiego (1959), E Bill Whisler (1962), B Paul Krause (1964), T Paul Laaveg (1970), RB Ladell Betts (2002), G Adam Gettis (2012) and CB Jordan Bernstine (2012).
· The Redskins’ 15 all-time selections from Iowa are tied for 14th-most from any school in team history. Scherff is the fifth Iowa Hawkeye selected by the Redskins in the Common Draft era (since 1967).
· Scherff’s selection at No. 5 marks the highest the Redskins have taken an Iowa Hawkeye, surpassing Pro Football Hall of Famer Paul Krause’s selection at No. 18 in the 1964 NFL Draft.
· Scherff is the second player selected by the Redskins at No. 5 all-time, joining Redskins Ring of Fame S Sean Taylor (2004).
· Scherff is the first Big Ten Conference product selected by the Redskins in the first round since LB Ryan Kerrigan in 2011. He is the sixth Big Ten product selected by the Redskins in the first round in the Common Draft era, joining DT Bobby Wilson (1991), WR Desmond Howard (1992), T Andre Johnson (1996), LB LaVar Arrington (2000) and LB Ryan Kerrigan (2011).

Gruden has announced that he will play RT

The guy utterly dominated Randy Gregory on multiple occasions
And that was on pass-blocking
He's for real

He looks mean, strong as an ox, & a big mass of humanity. This is exactly what we needed. GREAT pick up in the 1st round. In the "Combine" video, they said his hands are 11" across. ELEVEN! He's got freakin' huge hands. Looking forward to seeing this guy in action. HTTR

He's so big and mean, we don't even need anyone to man the Guard position.
He can take up both the RG and RT spots simultaneously.
Chris Chester's spot ? Problem solved

Gulf Coast Redskin said:

He looks mean, strong as an ox, & a big mass of humanity. This is exactly what we needed. GREAT pick up in the 1st round. In the "Combine" video, they said his hands are 11" across. ELEVEN! He's got freakin' huge hands. Looking forward to seeing this guy in action. HTTR

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Good gosh!!

Defenders are like rag dolls, to this monster.
Granted, he's going to face bigger and better competition in the NFL.
But HE'S going to get better too - which is the amazing part.
Callahan + Scherff = scary for defense

After watching the vid to see him "finish" blocks the way they were meant to be finished ... watch it again, and this time focus strictly on his feet.

Been a long time, fellas.

he's mean...falling on top of people sends a message more than anything else. I can remember in HS when that would happen or I would do it that it hurt. You don't want that to happen to you too many times.

I’ll have to be honest, when Williams fell to us at 5 I thought it was a slam dunk we’d pick him. I felt a little let down by Scherff since most of my focus had been on defensive players because of our position in the draft and the lack of the premiere LT prospect we see so often. We’d been told but many of the pundits over and over that Williams was the best player in the draft, so I shrugged my shoulders and said “ok, I want that guy”. About 15 minutes after the pick I stepped back a bit and had a moment of clarity.

First, I simply don’t watch enough college ball to have a valuable opinion on if Williams is the best player in the draft. Clearly there were four other teams who picked before us who disagreed with that statement or they would have drafted him. No team was willing to sell the farm to move up to get him. That’s not to say that he won’t be a good player of course but it outlines a clear difference between real GMs and guys who wish they were.

Second, the board is always “Best Player Available” right? Well, Scherff may very well have been the best player available for this team at 5. BPA is such a vague term you could twist that any number of ways.

Third, our new offensive line coach wants a power run scheme. Scherff should fit into that scheme perfectly. How good would it be to be able to stick that guy at RT (or even RG) and to have him be a consistent contributor for the next ten years? If he’s the next Tre’ Johnson I’d take it. If he’s the next Jon Jansen we’d all turn cartwheels.

Good teams are built from the lines out. This is a nice first step to making a commitment to that and not just paying it lip service.

Are OL allowed to fall on top of the defender like that in college and pros ?
Not talking about the incidental falling from the momentum - but rather at times he looks like he intentionally dives on top of the player when he is down, and face-down.
Can he do that without a penalty ?

We're going to find out.

Fear The Spear said:

Are OL allowed to fall on top of the defender like that in college and pros ?
Not talking about the incidental falling from the momentum - but rather at times he looks like he intentionally dives on top of the player when he is down, and face-down.
Can he do that without a penalty ?

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As long as it's before the whistle blows, he's fine.

He'll probably get bitched at for laying down on the play.
I presume he'll get coached to keep on going, stay in the play and take down several more while he's at it.

gotta love Chris Russell. Scherff was a reach at #5, but would have been solid pick at #8, 9 or 12

Unfortunately, Chris the Falcons, Browns and others evidently didn't want to give up what Scot considered 'value' to move down those extra spots.

As to the Giants picking Flowers and mentioning that the Redskins could have had him at one of those spots, consider that Scherff is a guy whose profile shows he is smart, versatile and focuses on football by keeping himself in top condition.

Flowers has had weight problems and to me doesn't look like the potential leader that Scherff is.

Bottom line, though, I think parsing a pick to the point where he is a 'reach' at one spot, but a solid pick 3-4 selections later is ridiculous.

If Scherff is a pro bowl caliber RT in the NFL, then it is mission accomplished with the pick.

Good luck to the Jets. Evidently they believe they should invest ALL of their top picks each year in the DL and ignore needs elsewhere.

Much as the Lions did under Mat Millen when they took wide receivers in 3-4 straight drafts with top 15 picks.

I prefer to have a GM that spreads the wealth around and focuses on assembling a complete team.

hmmmm.....I think this draft confirms what many have been saying all along: the poor play by the QBs on this team is attributable in a major way to crappy o-line talent. crappy enough that it forced the team to spend a pick on a position and player who is not the franchise kinda athlete one uses for a number 5 pick in the entire draft - a slection that passes by arguably the best talent in the draft for a team that has limited long-run talent on defense. to me this outcome simply symbolizes just how absolutely disgusting roster management on this team has been for years. Is the Scherff pick a good one? Sure. Is it how you want to spend the 5th pick in the draft? Not in my book. This was a need driven and QB driven selection IMO. It's what a mathematician would call a local optimum.

anywho......done. over with. time to move on and see how the new parts work into the mix.

When Williams pulls an Orakpo and is out for weeks or possibly the season, due to labrum/shoulder issues, then those that are skeptical about passing on him will hail Scotty as genius.

fair enough. bear in mind that Scherff had injury problems in multiple seasons while at Iowa.

But Williams has them now.

Couldn't lift at the combine or his Pro Day. I think after all the heartache the club went through with Rak and his pec/labrum issues, it scared us away from Williams.

Just my opinion though and you know what they say about opinions....lol

DP.....all good points.

I have posted elsewhere: I think Scherff is a good pick when looked at from the probable drivers. This was a need driven pick and a "fix the QB" driven pick. the team is definitely not hurt by this pick.

1 day looks mean nothing...I concede that. Been looking at the 24 hr assessments for all teams and the Skins are almost uniformly ranking out among the lowest drafts. means nothing at this point...I know. A recurring theme is, of course, the williams pass up, but additionally many seem to think that picks 3 to the end were all about shoring up the back-ups and overall depth....and less about finding starters.

McL's rep has been made, in part, by finding the stellar starters in the lower rounds that everyone else passed up.