Was Brandon Scherff the Best Pick at 5 in 2015?

[MKnight82]

Brandon Scherff is gone. We selected him with the #5 overall pick in the 2015 class and then he gave us 7 seasons in Washington. During that time he was a 5 time Pro-Bowler and had one first team All Pro (2020).  When he was on the field he was an elite Guard. 

The negatives are these: He played Guard.  He was supposedly drafted to play RT but was almost immediately moved to Guard in his first training camp. Guard simply isn't a premium position in football. The next issue is he only played 89 out of a possible 112 games. That means he only played 80% of the games while he was on the roster, and honestly he limped through some of the ones he did play. 

The question is then, was there a better option in the 2015 draft?  Let's look at the options.  The following are all of the players selected in the 2015 draft that made a Pro Bowl (starting after pick 5): 

1-6 DE Leonard Williams

1-8 DE Vic Beasley

1-10 HB Todd Gurley

1-13 OG Andrus Peat

1-15 HB Melvin Gordon

1-18 CB Marcus Peters

1-24 OT DJ Humphries

1-27 CB Byron Jones

1-28 OG Laken Tomlinson

2-33 S Landon Collins

2-43 LB Benardrick McKinney

2-45 LB Eric Kendricks

2-48 LB Denzel Perryman

2-61 OG Ali Marpet 

2-63 DE Frank Clark

3-69 WR Tyler Lockett

3-86 HB David Johnson

3-88 DE Danielle Hunter

4-122 EDGE Za"Darius Smith

4-124 LB Kwon Alexander

5-137 DT Grady Jarrett

5-146 WR Stefon Diggs

5-149 HB Jay Ajayi

5-172 LB DJ Alexander

6-200 S Quandre Diggs

6-204 TE Darren Waller

7-244 OT Trent Brown

 

So my first thought were, wow what a terrible draft class.  In the moment back then, you'd probably only consider guys that would have gone in the first round.  Of that group I'd say maybe only Marcus Peters would have been more valuable?  His career has been up and down though so I'm not sure Scherff is worse than him. 

With complete hindsight Stefon Diggs and Danielle Hunter are superior players to Scherff, and they play more important positions. I also think you could make arguments for Frank Clark, Za'Darius Smith & Darren Waller being superior players. Andrus Peat and Ali Marpet could be considered close in ability as well. 

All in all I think its hard to say he was a bad pick. Ultimately it was just a terrible draft class so ending up with a good player even at a less valuable position was probably the best we could have done. 

[lavar703]

The pick should’ve been Leonard Williams

[MKnight82]

35 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

The pick should’ve been Leonard Williams

I thought that at the time and was quite upset we didn't select him.  In hindsight I think he's been a disappointment.  

[THESKINSFAN21]

7 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

I thought that at the time and was quite upset we didn't select him.  In hindsight I think he's been a disappointment.  

Yeah,Scherff was the correct choice. Not sure what anyone sees in Lenoard Williams. 

[LoganF89]

At that time I wanted Leonard williams as well, we were still trying to figure out pieces for the 3-4 defense back then and still never figured it out. He would of been the ideal 3-4 end lineman, hind sight is 2020 tho, I mean you can’t compare the pick of Scherrf to guys who weren’t predicted to go in the 1st

remember we drafted Scherrf as a tackle and he didn’t work out there, the move to guard wasnt what the intention was when we took him, luckily he panned out for a guard.

the accolades he achieved and all pro nod solidify that it wasn’t a bad pick imo, honestly all these players are vastly getting over paid now

Edited March 24, 2022 by LoganF89

[taylor made]

There were really only three options from that list - Gurley, Leonard Williams & Brandon Scherff. They've had similar values in their careers' so far. Gurley's had the best few years but his career is about over and wasn't durable in the end. Scherff a bad pick? No, I don't think so. The guys who didn't make the pro bowl would have been bad picks - Kevin White, Trae Waynes & Danny Shelton. The team had a real bad stretch in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 drafts where I think McLoughan felt like they needed to draft someone safe. There's nothing wrong with drafting a guard in the first round, they are the safest position to draft. Leonard Williams would have been the better pick, but not by much. He's never been an all-pro player and the team that drafted him got rid of him. The one thing about Leonard is that he is 3 years younger than Scherff and might have more productive years ahead. It should be interesting to see how they finish out their careers. 

[MKnight82]

5 minutes ago, taylor made said:

There were really only three options from that list - Gurley, Leonard Williams & Brandon Scherff. They've had similar values in their careers' so far. Gurley's had the best few years but his career is about over and wasn't durable in the end. Scherff a bad pick? No, I don't think so. The guys who didn't make the pro bowl would have been bad picks - Kevin White, Trae Waynes & Danny Shelton. The team had a real bad stretch in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 drafts where I think McLoughan felt like they needed to draft someone safe. There's nothing wrong with drafting a guard in the first round, they are the safest position to draft. Leonard Williams would have been the better pick, but not by much. He's never been an all-pro player and the team that drafted him got rid of him. The one thing about Leonard is that he is 3 years younger than Scherff and might have more productive years ahead. It should be interesting to see how they finish out their careers. 

Good post

[ripsean21]

10 hours ago, MKnight82 said:

I thought that at the time and was quite upset we didn't select him.  In hindsight I think he's been a disappointment.  

I was just not in love with Williams. Just not the sudden athlete and it’s shown. He’s a good player but when your a premier DL player you have to have the twitch. He didn’t have that and I get we NEEDED DL back then but Brandon has been a legit pro bowl level guy on the field even all pro. But Jon is a much better player and he fell to almost 20. That was just a weaker class. The best player in the class was Gurley and Peters and both had things that caused them to not be drafted accordingly to their talents

[ripsean21]

9 hours ago, taylor made said:

There were really only three options from that list - Gurley, Leonard Williams & Brandon Scherff. They've had similar values in their careers' so far. Gurley's had the best few years but his career is about over and wasn't durable in the end. Scherff a bad pick? No, I don't think so. The guys who didn't make the pro bowl would have been bad picks - Kevin White, Trae Waynes & Danny Shelton. The team had a real bad stretch in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 drafts where I think McLoughan felt like they needed to draft someone safe. There's nothing wrong with drafting a guard in the first round, they are the safest position to draft. Leonard Williams would have been the better pick, but not by much. He's never been an all-pro player and the team that drafted him got rid of him. The one thing about Leonard is that he is 3 years younger than Scherff and might have more productive years ahead. It should be interesting to see how they finish out their careers. 

I guess I could have read this first you hit it lol

[MikeT14]

I wanted Leonard. Hindsight was that was maybe incorrect. 

[turtle28]

I would’ve still taken Leonard Williams. Stephon Diggs over Crowder all day in the 4th round.
 

It’s about the ripple effect of that selection.

Our DL was the worst part of our team in 2015. If we took L. Will  in 2015 our DL is better. It’s not just about sacks as an interior DL, it’s about run D & collapsing the pocket or flushing a QB off his spot so a guy like Ryan Kerrigan or Preston Smith back then could clean up.

If we had taken Leonard Williams then our D is very likely better in 2015, perhaps that helps us win another game or 2? Or helps us beat the Packers in the playoffs?
 

Remember we had a lead in that playoff game in the first half but our D couldn’t stop Rodgers in the 2nd half & our O struggled to score more.

2 years later we get Jon Allen and in 2018 we take DaRon Payne, but maybe we take Derwin James in 2018 instead of Payne?

Maybe that helps our D be better?

Edited March 26, 2022 by turtle28