Brandon Scherff, who can now lift 480 pounds, was a high school QB

When Brandon Scherff took the 443-pound bar off the rack, he had one thing on his mind: one hang clean with it. Just one. He did three.

“I was pretty happy,” Scherff said when asked what was going through his head at the time. That was last July. His max is now up to 480 pounds.

Weightlifting feats are just one of the Iowa offensive lineman’s accomplishments. He’s almost assured of being a first-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. In high school, football was one of FOUR sports he played. In the spring, he played baseball, threw the discus and shot put for the track and field team, and was the number four on the varsity tennis team.

“I tried to spin it,” he said of his tennis serves. “They never expected that.”

Scherff won the Outland Trophy last season, the award given to the best offensive lineman in college football. He’ll probably play tackle in the NFL, though he’s more than willing to be a guard or even a center if asked.

He’s a relative newcomer to blocking. In high school, Scherff was a 290-pound quarterback, and was also willing to do that in the NFL, to no one’s surprise. He even suggested a quarterback sneak on second-and-5, something he’d done before, sending his center left while he went right, so as not to kill the tiny lineman in front of him. Black Heart Gold Pants has highlights of Scherff the quarterback.

Plenty of teams are interested in Scherff. He has a formal interview scheduled with the Rams. He was pretty sure he had one with the Giants, too.