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Much-discussed Iowa offensive lineman Brandon Scherff met with the media on Thursday at the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine. We already knew that Scherff, often mocked to the New York Giants with the ninth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, was meeting with the Giants Thursday night. Here are some of the other things we learned.
Scherff was a high school quarterback. Yes, quarterback. At 290 pounds!
"It was different. I was 290 pounds, and my center was like 190 pounds. So it should be flip-flopped probably from that. It was a good experience for me, I learned a lot and I'm thankful for that."
Don't believe it? Here's Scherff playing quarterback:
How about this trick play? Eli Manning laterals to Odell Beckham, who throws a backward pass to Scherff, who then throws back to Beckham streaking down the field? Tom Coughlin's head would explode just from Ben McAdoo trying to put that in the playbook.
Scherff played five sports in high school -- football, basketball, baseball, track and tennis.
"I would consider myself a pretty good athlete. Gave tennis up sophomore year. I did three sports in the spring so I missed quite a few track events or tennis events. So I gave that up and just played four sports."
Last season Scherff had arthroscopic knee surgery on a Tuesday, practiced Wednesday and Thursday, and played that Saturday against Iowa State.
"I owe something to my team. If I was able to play, I was going to play. They said two weeks or three weeks possibly. I said I felt pretty good Wednesday; can I throw my knee brace and helmet on and just do some drills. They're like yeah sure go ahead. Thursday I told ‘em I felt fine. They said it was up to me. So I wanted to do that."
On how much weight he can hang clean. Let's assume this is an awful lot.
"My one-rep max is 480." [video here at 433 pounds]
Scherff, a left tackle at Iowa, doesn't think moving to guard in the NFL would be a big deal if he is asked to do that.
"I don't think there would be a challenge. I like run blocking. It would be a little closer. You're getting a little help from the center also. I think it would it would be a smooth move for me. Like I said I'll be happy to play wherever they want me to play."
Prospect Tracker
Here are some of the players the Giants have met with at the Combine, culled from a variety of sources:
- David Cobb, RB, Minnesota [prospect profile]
- Sean Hickey, OT, Syracuse
- Cedric Ogbuehi, OT, Texas A&M
- Blake Sims, QB, Alabama
- Ameer Abdullah, RB, Nebraska [prospect profile]
- Duke Johnson, RB, Miami [prospect profile]
- Tevin Coleman, RB, Indiana [prospect profile]
Measurements
Mocking The Draft has the measurables from Thursday: