Scherff to sign with Jaguars, ending his time in Washington originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
After seven seasons in Washington — the last two of which have been quite profitable — Brandon Scherff is set to play in Jacksonville in 2022.
The All-Pro guard has reportedly agreed to a contract with the Jaguars, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The transaction can become official on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed.
Though the Commanders will miss Scherff’s powerful presence at right guard, they really had no chance of re-signing him. Thanks to the two consecutive franchise tags Scherff played under for the last two years, negotiating with him proved to be an impossible task because of the leverage those tags granted him.
In fact, according to general manager Martin Mayhew, Scherff once turned down an offer from the squad that would’ve made him the highest-paid player at his position in league history. If he shuts that idea down, what more can a front office do?
Scherff’s durability problems are important to consider, too. If the playing field between Washington and Scherff was more level, Ron Rivera may still have balked at the idea of paying him a sizable amount of money because Scherff has been so injury-prone as a pro.
That said, even if Scherff’s departure from the organization has long felt inevitable, it does sting. He’s a five-time Pro Bowler, was adept as both a run and pass blocker and brought that classic edge up front that all the best linemen bring.
After Scherff’s 2015 rookie campaign with Washington, Jay Gruden famously lamented that the team spent one of its two first-round picks up to that point on “a guard.” The Iowa product was very quickly given a shot as a right tackle before that coaching staff figured out he would fare much better one spot over, and Gruden (understandably) didn’t love the value of that selection.
Well, Scherff is now surely a handsomely-paid guard (again) and the Jags were more than happy to take him off the Commanders’ hands and entrust him with protecting 2021 No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence.