Seahawks set to sign T/G Jake Bscherer, per reports

The Seahawks have reportedly offered former University of Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin G/T Jake Bscherer a free-agent contract, and he'll be signed pending a physical. Bscherer and his complete disregard for normal vowel-consonant principles was one of Seattle's rookie mini-camp tryouts a few weeks back, and apparently impressed the coaching staff enough for another look.

Bscherer's path to the VMAC is an abnormal one. He was a blue chip out of high school in 2005 - a SuperPrep top-25, USA Today All-American, Wisconsin Gatorade High School Player of the Year and Rivals' No.4 OT in the nation - and landed at Wisconsin, the famed O-Line U. After spot-duty and special teams work his first two seasons, he redshirted in 2008 due to injury and in 2009 he saw action in 13 games for the Badgers, starting six of them at both left guard and right tackle, losing out in a competition with Gabe Carimi for the coveted left tackle spot.

He then took two years off from football, before returning for his final year of eligibility at UM-Duluth, a powerhouse D-II program. Now, at 25, the guard/tackle looks to extend his career into the pros, and hopefully the two years off, resting his body and getting back into shape, will pay off.

As for measureables, Bscherer compares favorably to 2nd overall pick Luke Joekel, so that's generally speaking a good thing. Bscherer measured 6063, 305 pounds with a 5.22 40 yard dash, a 4.60 short shuttle, and a 7.40 3-cone. Compare to 6'6, 305 pound Joekel, who ran a 5.25 40, registered a 4.68 short shuttle and a 7.40 3-cone. Does that make Bscherer ACTUALLY comparable to Joekel? Of course not. One was the 2nd overall pick and an elite tackle prospect and the other is a 25-year old undrafted free agent that played D-2 ball last year after taking two years off.

They're just similar athletes with strikingly similar size/speed numbers. Here's an hour and a half of scouting tape on Bscherer (#79) - if any of you actually watches this whole thing I'll just go ahead and give you Field Gulls.

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The one thing that does strike me about Bscherer is that he's fairly light on his feet. His forty isn't pretty, but his L-cone and short shuttle change-of-direction is pretty damn impressive, honestly, for a guy his size. He wastes almost no movement planting his foot and going the other direction, and though he's anything but fast in a straight line, that short area quickness is way more important for linemen anyway.

The term 'dancing bear' is thrown around for the elite tackles - humungous, agile offensive linemen and the key attribute they all share is good, quick feet. While I'm definitely not going to say Bscherer is a so-called dancing bear, I am going to link to this video of a bear fighting a guy, because talking about dancing bears reminded me of this and how much I loved this in high school or something:

For a little perspective on Bscherer's 3-cone and short shuttle times - it's worth noting that the 4.6 short shuttle would have been 6th amongst tackles in this year's class and his 3-cone of 7.4 would have been tied for 2nd best, behind only Lane Johnson and tied with Joekel. Bscherer may not be the elusive dancing bear but he's pretty damn athletic for a 6'6, 305 pound fella.

The team hasn't announced the signing quite yet but it's being reported in numerous spots that he'll be a Seahawk as soon as he passes a physical.