Five things you might not know about Keishawn Bierria

The Broncos drafted Washington Huskies linebacker Keishawn Bierria in the sixth round of this year’s draft. He doesn’t have prototypical size or speed for the position, but his on-field production was enough to warrant a day-three draft pick.

With Brandon Marshall and Todd Davis the heavy favorites to return as the Broncos’ starters at inside linebacker this year, Bierria will fight 25-year-old Zaire Anderson, fifth-round pick Josey Jewell and Jerrol Garcia-Williams, who spent most of his rookie year on the practice squad, for a roster spot and a place in the rotation.

Here are five things you might not know about Keishawn Bierria:

HE LOST HIS FATHER AT A YOUNG AGE

Bierria’s path to the NFL wasn’t simple.

His father died of cancer when Keishawn was eight, and he moved in with his grandparents while his mother battled grief.

Bierria also struggled with learning disabilities as a child, but was able to earn straight A’s during his senior year of high school after realizing that his grades might be too poor to let him play college ball.

“All we wanted to do was play sports,” he told UW’s booster club magazine. “Then, when Division-I colleges started talking to my older brother and other high school athletes, they couldn’t accept offers because their grades didn’t qualify.”

While at UW, Bierria worked with tutors and specialists, eventually earning degrees in sociology and American ethnic studies with a minor in anthropology.

“Every year, I took full credits. For the last football season, I was fully enrolled like I was a freshman,” Bierria told the magazine. “It was important to me because I had the support to do it. I had a lot of younger teammates who looked up to me. I could set an example not just on the field but in the classroom. It was the right thing to do.”

HE WANTED TO BE A TROJAN

Bierria was a huge USC fan. He grew up 20 minutes south of Los Angeles in Harbor City and dreamed of playing college football for USC.

But there was a problem: While Bierria went through the recruiting process, the NCAA was still docking USC 30 scholarships per year due to a “lack of institutional control” during the mid-2000s.

“Every kid in high school thinks about playing at USC,” Bierria told ESPN during his senior year. “I went to a few camps there, and they were looking at me but, right now, it’s not looking like it will happen.”

HE HAS A NOSE FOR THE BALL

Ask a Huskies football fan about their favorite memories of Bierria, and you’ll likely hear about his unbelievable turnover streak to start his junior year.

In the 2016 season opener against Rutgers, on the Knights’ second drive of the game, quarterback Chris Laviano tried to use his legs to pick up a third down but was met a yard short of the line to gain by the left shoulder of a diving Keishawn Bierria.

The ball popped free and another linebacker dove on top of it.

The next week, the Idaho Vandals rolled into Seattle. On the opening kickoff, Budda Baker knocked the ball out of the returner’s hands, and Bierria fell on it.

He recovered another against Portland State the next week, then versus Arizona, Stanford and Oregon.

All told, Bierria recovered fumbles in five of the Huskies’ first six games and forced one in the other.

HE HAS THE RESPECT OF HIS TEAMMATES

Every year, the Huskies’ football team votes for the winner of the Guy Flaherty Award, which is given to the most inspirational player on the team.

In 110 years, Bierria is just the fifth player to win it twice.

“I’m definitely stepping into a leadership role,” he told Huskies New Era after his first win. “I’ve just got to be more on it, what I say and what I do, how I talk to my teammates. Everything is about encouraging them at this point.”

In a piece for Sports Illustrated, Robert Klemko dug into one of the most common questions asked at the NFL combine: If you could take one teammate with you to your future NFL team, who would it be?

Huskies running back Lavon Coleman said that he named all six of his teammates who were invited to the combine—Bierria, Will Dissly, Dante Pettis, Coleman Shelton, Vita Vea and Azeem Victor—but that wasn’t what the scouts were looking for.

“They make you pick one,” Coleman told Klemko, “so I just picked my boy Keishawn [Bierria]. That’s my dude.”

HE HAS AN ATTITUDE

Great defenses need at least a couple of fiery leaders, and that’s exactly the role Bierria filled for one of the best groups in college football.

Here’s what Bierria told The Daily UW about his linebacking corps:

“We are crazy; we’ll go all out, it doesn’t matter who we are playing against. We don’t back down, slow down for nothing. We hit anything we can.”

And his career goals?

“I want that jewelry, you know what I’m saying?” Bierria told The Seattle Times. “I want to make sure whatever we do, it lasts forever.”