Missouri Tigers LB Michael Scherer Generating NFL Interest

It appears that a torn ACL won’t destroy Michael Scherer‘s dream of playing in the NFL.

Missouri Tigers linebacker Michael Scherer had some great momentum built up heading into his senior season, and it looked like he might be a mid-to-late round NFL Draft candidate. The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder had been one of the leaders of the Tigers’ defense for two straight seasons, and the spotlight would be shone brightly upon him to begin 2017.

Unfortunately, Scherer endured the worst-case scenario as a senior, anchoring a Mizzou defense that was one of the worst in the Football Bowl Subdivision before tearing his ACL in late October. While Scherer was impressive in his own right before going down, the fact that he suffered such a serious injury in advance of the draft seemed to severely diminish his chances of latching on with an NFL team.

While Scherer, who is a product of MICDS in St. Louis, almost certainly won’t be drafted this weekend, it appears as if he’s got a pretty good chance of earning a spot as an undrafted free agent, even though he hasn’t been able to do pre-draft workouts at full health. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Jim Thomas writes, Scherer has been in contact with quite a few NFL clubs over the past week:

Scherer had just 53 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and an interception in 2016, but when he was at full health for the previous two seasons, he was an extremely prolific defender. During his first season as a starter in 2014, he tallied 114 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and half a sack, and he followed that up with another great effort in 2015, collecting 93 tackles (including nine for loss).

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Scherer’s Mizzou teammate and fellow St. Louisan, Donavin Newsom, has also seen his draft stock rise over the past month or so. Newsom ran an extremely impressive 4.50 40-yard dash at Mizzou’s pro day and could be a late-round selection in this weekend’s draft.