BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

Former Washington Redskins running back Silas Redd has set his sights on the NRL after a successful debut for the Ipswich Jets in their recent trial match against Tweed Heads in Hawaii.

Redd will now link with the Jets when their pre-season begins in November.

The American has had a rocky career which started when he switched colleges in 2012 – from Penn State to USC in California – with Redd receiving death threats from Penn State fans with one social media user posting: “I’m issuing a standing RIP for Silas Redd. He’ll be dead by the end of the season.”

NCAA handed down sanctions against Penn State and instead of sitting out a season, Redd decided to take his talents elsewhere.

He was then drafted to the Redskins in 2014 but tore his ACL in the first pre-season match of 2015 against Cleveland.

Silas Redd 2014 Bowman Chrome Refractor RC Auto!

$2#dmntakeover pic.twitter.com/qeLGqDZcTM

— DMN Tak€ov€r (@dmntakeover) March 15, 2016

#StamfordGuru https://t.co/IkxP25m5Ai Silas Redd out for season with ACL tear, vows return pic.twitter.com/ymfz1nxAtd

— Stamford Guru (@stamford_guru) August 17, 2015

It was then, whilst still an injured reserve, he was suspended by the NFL for violating the substance-abuse policy and subsequently released by the Redskins at the end of 2016.

It’s not the first time the Jets have targeted American footballers but Redd could be the one that goes all the way to the NRL.

“He’s genuine, he’s not just a college football player. He’ll play NRL,” Jets coach Ben Walker told NRL.com.

“We’ve had college players before and they were close, one was actually 18th man two or three times. He was very close but this guy being ex-NFL, he’s next level.

“You can tell that just looking at him. Silas is just that next level of athlete compared to what we’ve had come out from America before.

I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. – Phil 4:13 pic.twitter.com/uThxLlwzQF

— Silas Redd Jr. (@ThirdEyeSi_) October 15, 2017

“If we can coach him and teach him what we know then there’s no reason he can’t play NRL.

“That’s what he wants to do now. He has no desire to play NFL at all and he sees this as a real good challenge.”

There’s no question he’s up to the challenge of pre-season in the Queensland heat.

Whether he can pick the game up fast enough to make it to the top is anyone’s guess.

@woodward_curtis