The South African will have a shot in the NFL

Gerhard de Beer came to The University of Arizona from South Africa as a discus thrower.

He’ll leave with an invite to an NFL rookie camp.

The Buffalo Bills have agreed to sign the Arizona Wildcats’ offensive lineman according to de Beer’s agent Brett Tessler.

Currently measuring in at 6-foot-7 and 312 pounds, the South African certainly has the body type and body control to at least have a chance at making an NFL training camp, if not scout team or actual roster.

Related South African native Gerhard de Beer enjoying transition to Arizona

The thing that’s most intriguing about de Beer is his background. He had never played football before heading to Tucson (he played rugby), and would often get teased by coaches and teammates about how he didn’t have any idea how to simply wear football pads at the beginning.

But he came a long way, starting 18 games over the past two seasons at right tackle, and earned 22 starts total in his collegiate career. De Beer was part of an offensive line that helped lead Arizona to the Pac-12’s best rushing offense in 2017.

It will be interesting to see if de Beer is able to make it beyond a rookie camp with the Bills or any other team in the league. And who knows, if this whole offensive lineman thing doesn’t work out, maybe he can become the game’s biggest punter.