How does a 6-foot-7, 320-pound offensive lineman with obvious physical gifts and athleticism nearly fall through the cracks of both the collegiate and NFL levels?
Welcome to the story of Ryan Schernecke
, an undrafted free agent from Division II Kutztown University who signed with the New York Giants after the 2026 NFL Draft.Schernecke, out of Upper Moreland High School in Willow Grove, Pa., was largely unnoticed by bigger colleges coming out of high school.
Kutztown head coach Jim Clements said that
Schernecke “was kind of growing into his own body and his junior film was not good.”
Scherenecke’s senior season was also the COVID-19 year and scouts from bigger programs never really got to see or speak with Schernecke during the season or in offseason camps where players often get noticed by college coaches.
When he finished his high school career, Schernecke was listed by Max Preps as 6-7, 280 pounds. Taylor said there were questions about whether Schernecke was actually that big, and whether his frame could handle gaining weight.
“You wouldn’t know it,” said Kutztown offensive line coach Pat Taylor, who said Schernecke looked like he weighed perhaps 240 pounds. “He looked really thin. He was kind of just like a baby giraffe of sorts.”
Kutztown, just an hour away from Upper Moreland and with what Clements calls a “developmental program”, was the beneficiary.
‘We didn’t bail on him’
Clements and his staff took a chance based on what they thought Schernecke could be, not based on what he was.
“He was young and he was trying to figure out, he’s a long kid and he was uncoordinated a little bit. He was just like a baby deer. He had the measurables that we thought he could end up being special. So we didn’t bail on him.
“We went back and watched some more film the next year and it wasn’t, it, it was good. It wasn’t, oh my God, look at this kid. But you saw enough growth from his junior to his senior year where you’re like, Hey, this kid’s got a really high ceiling. He’s not even close and he’s getting better.”
At Kutztown, Schernecke developed from a struggling freshman into a standout player who drew attention from more than half the teams in the NFL and now has an opportunity to make the Giants’ roster. The Giants, incidentally, are giving him more than an opportunity. They are giving him a guaranteed $282,500. That is a full year’s practice squad salary ($247,500) and a $35,000 signing bonus.
Still, there was a question entering the 2025 season as to whether or not Schernecke would get any kind of NFL opportunity.
At the beginning of Kutztown’s 2023 season, Schernecke was trying to play through a torn labrum. He then suffered a torn ACL — and continued to play through both injuries for a couple of games before being sidelined.
“This crazy bastard played two games on a torn ACL and a torn labrum,” Taylor said.
After Kutztown finally shut him down, Schernecke had surgery to repair both injuries, missed the rest of the season, the entire offseason training program, and wasn’t cleared to participate until just before the beginning of the 2024 season.
“So he doesn’t have spring football,” Taylor said. “We’ve had guys before that have torn labrums. And it’s like, all right, not a big deal. You can still do all your lower body stuff. We’ve had guys with torn ACLs. And it’s like, you can do all your upper body stuff. So he comes back and he’s not bad. He’s good. He’s still like an all-region player. Still really good.”
Schernecke, by then, was on the radar of some NFL teams. They watched his 2024 tape, though, and weren’t overwhelmed.
“They’re like, well, it’s good. We want it to be a little bit more dominant,” Taylor said. “I’m thinking to myself, yeah, because this guy hasn’t had a practice. He didn’t have an offseason. His offseason was rehabbing.”
Healthy after the 2024 season, Schernecke attacked his offseason training. He added roughly 20 pounds without sacrificing athleticism.
“I see him, he comes to one of our prospect camps just to help. And I see where his like body is and I’m like, man, I was worried that he was just like fat, to be perfectly honest with you,” Taylor said. “And he’s demonstrating drills and he’s moving around and I said, oh boy, this is going to be different.
“Once I started seeing him practice this past summer and then even into the games and I’m just like, if this guy can’t make it, I don’t know who can, because it all clicked, the training, the weight, the understanding of the concepts, everything, he just started being able to play so much faster and stronger than he ever has and with more balance.
“And you’re just like, man, this is starting to look a lot different than what it did in the previous seasons.”
NFL teams noticed
By mid-October, teams who were still monitoring Schernecke were REALLY beginning to pay attention.
“Here come all these teams again,” Taylor said. “I’m like, why are you guys coming now?
“They’re like, we had him as a grade to go back and watch. The 2025 film is so much better than 2024. Now we’ve got to see him. And then anyone who came in was just like, no, like this guy’s real. He’s a real guy. His height, his weight, the way he moves, his balance.”
While somewhere from 18 (Clements’ number) to 26 teams (Taylor’s number) expressed some interest in Schernecke, by the time the postseason draft process was in full swing the Giants were one of about five teams seriously in pursuit of the Kutztown lineman.
College area scout Brendan Prophett and senior scout Chris Snee worked Schernecke out after the Lehigh Pro Day.
A Giant opportunity
Clements said the Las Vegas Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles were among the other teams who wanted Schernecke. The young man, incidentally, grew up as an Eagles fan.
“He might have seen a pretty good situation, where the Giants are. Obviously everyone wants to be better up front, but he thought maybe, hey, this is a spot where I can grow, get better,” Clements said. “It’s a new offensive line coach. It’s a new system. John Harbaugh’s in town. I think Ryan fits in that wheelhouse, what he [Harbaugh] was doing at Baltimore, and that’s what he wants to bring to New York. I think he’d be a really good fit, good project.”
Schernecke played both tackle spots at Kutztown, and is also believed to have guard flexibility.
“The Giants are investing in him and have a plan for him and a vision for him,” Clements said. “Whatever their plan and vision is for him, he’s going to exceed that. I don’t know what that is for them. I don’t know where they see him, but whatever they expect, they’re going to be more than happy what they get because he’s going to exceed that.”
Taylor said guard is an option for Schernecke because “the strength of his game is him just coming off the ball and moving people.”
“Ryan, I’m sure it doesn’t care about it [position],” Taylor said. “He’ll figure it out. But as long as people aren’t just judging him on the first practice or the second practice I think there’s a runway for him to stick around.
“Whether it’s making the 53 or being on the practice squad or whatever, I think there’s a path for Ryan to stick around for, you know, quite a few years.”
