3 former Michigan offensive linemen sign NFL free-agent contracts totaling over $100m

The Michigan football team’s proficiency on the offensive line has made it to the NFL.

No offensive line in college football has had as much success as Michigan’s during the last three years. Over the last three years, the group has won two Joe Moore Awards (which recognize the nation’s top offensive line), three Big Ten championships, and a national Championship. The squad has received six first-team All-Big Ten honors, seven second-team All-Big Ten honors, two consensus All-Americans, three NFL Draft choices, and six invitations to the 2024 NFL Draft Combine.

The Wolverines’ offensive success has carried over into the NFL. This past season, 10 former offensive linemen from Michigan appeared in NFL games. On Monday, the first day of NFL free agency, three of them demonstrated their long-term commitment to the league by signing contracts worth a total of $107 million.

The first signing was Graham Glasgow, who was a crucial piece in the Detroit Lions’ offensive line this season and received a three-year, $20 million contract to stay with the team. Including the NFL playoffs, Glasgow started 18 games and appeared in 20 others, totaling over 1,200 snaps for the season. The former third-round draft pick in 2016 has had a successful career in the NFL, starting 110 games, including 77 for the Lions and 33 for the Broncos. Glasgow, who is now on his fourth NFL contract, would make $52.4 million if he plays out the entire term.

Later in the day, two previous Michigan standouts agreed to significant raises after playing out their rookie contracts. Jon Runyan Jr., who started all 19 games for the Green Bay Packers this season (including two playoff games) and 53 games over the previous three seasons, has signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the New York Giants. Runyan, originally from Moorestown, New Jersey, in the Philadelphia suburbs, will return to the east coast.

Michael Onwenu has re-signed with the New England Patriots on a three-year, $57 million contract. Onwenu, a former sixth-round pick who was chosen just ten picks before Runyan in the 2020 NFL Draft, has started 56 games for New England in the last four seasons, including 15 this season. Many of those starts have come at offensive tackle, increasing his positional worth.

This offseason, PFF placed Onwenu as the No. 26 free agent, while Runyan and Glasgow were ranked 93rd and 121st, respectively. Josh Uche (No. 49), Brandon Graham (No. 90), Maurice Hurst Jr. (No. 96), Michael Danna (No. 103), Jourdan Lewis (No. 179), Donovan Peoples-Jones (No. 197), and Bryan Mone (No. 249) were among the other former Michigan players to make the site’s top 250 list.