Who Is the Modern OLU? It Turns Out It Isn't Cornell
Reid Foster and Gary Gramling have been working to determine which schools are the modern position 'U' over the past ten years in a series through TheMMQB and this time they are looking at the offensive line. Much to dismay of Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter, Cornell was not the top school for producing offensive linemen.
As it turns out, none of the Browns projected starters on the offensive line attended any of the schools that made this list. The only offensive lineman on the entire roster that went to one of them was Malcolm Pridgeon, a player on reserves/futures contract that went to Ohio State.
Wisconsin finishes second to Notre Dame, which is went former Browns offensive tackle and soon to be Hall of Fame inductee Joe Thomas went to school. But unless the Browns were to draft Tristan Wirfs from Iowa or Jedrick Wills from Alabama in the upcoming NFL Draft, they aren't likely to get a player from one of these schools either. Andrew Thomas went to the University of Georgia, Josh Jones went to Houston and Ezra Cleveland went to Boise State.
The Browns have an eclectic group of universities represented on their offensive line. In addition to Tretter form Cornell, the Browns have Joel Bitonio from Nevada, Jack Conklin from Michigan State, Wyatt Teller from Virginia Tech, Drew Forbes Southeastern Missouri State, Chris Hubbard from Alabama-Birmingham, both Kendall Lamm and Colby Gossett from Appalachian State, Evan Brown from Southern Methodist and Willie Wright from Tulsa.
Depending on who they find to be their starting left tackle, the Browns, despite not going through the more popular channels to acquire offensive linemen, have put together one of the more talented offensive lines in the NFL.
