If you ask Redskins head coach Jay Gruden what he thinks of rookie Brandon Scherff's progress this preseason, you'll get a smile."I'm fired up about Brandon," Gruden said.
"He's going against some pretty good players on the defensive line his first couple of weeks. He's got Aaron Donald with the Rams, [Ndamukong] Suh, possibly could be over there. He's got this [Dolphins tackle Earl] Mitchell guy. He's going to have some great challenges early. We'll see how ready he is."
Washington hosts Miami in their regular season opener on Sept. 13 and St. Louis the following week, two ample opportunities for the rookie to prove or disprove himself in Jay Gruden's eyes.
Change has been the motif of Scherff's brief NFL career. He started at left tackle at Iowa, eventually winning the Outland Trophy. The Redskins, who picked him No. 5 overall in April, switched him to right tackle in OTAs before nudging him over one spot during the preseason.
There was some good, there was some bad.
But more of the former than the latter, if you ask Gruden, who says his rookie's best attribute is versatility and his response to coaching.
"The one thing about him is that I feel like he's a mentally tough, stable human being," he said. "It's one thing to get beat every now and then on a nice swim move or a bull rush or something like that, but to not let it affect your play moving forward is very, very important."
Scherff permitted one sack (against Detroit) and one quarterback hit (against Baltimore) in 77 offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
"We think that's a great quality that Brandon has," Gruden said. "He's going to get beat from time to time, but he's going to bounce back and keep grinding."
No comments:
Post a Comment