Green Bay Packers Grab Jon Runyan In The Sixth Round Of The NFL Draft
The Green Bay Packers selected former Michigan Wolverines football left tackle Jon Runyan with the No. 192 overall pick in the NFL draft (sixth round), marking the fourth U-M offensive lineman to come off the board (center Cesar Ruiz in the first round, left guard Ben Bredeson in the fourth round and right guard Mike Onwenu in the sixth round).
He will follow in his father's footsteps (also named Jon), who enjoyed a successful NFL career from 19996-2009 that saw him start 192 of the 207 career games he appeared in.
"Veteran, you talk about 26 career starts, he had 25 starts at left tackle, one start at right tackle," ESPN analyst Mel Kiper said of U-M's Runyan. "What he’s going to be in the NFL at 6-4 and change, 306 pounds with shorter arms than you prefer is a guard.
"He’s going to have to move inside to the guard spot. Athleticism, he can hold up there as a pass blocker. I thought he more than held his own out there on that island at tackle, both at right tackle for that one game and left tackle for the 25 starts there.
"The issue for him at guard will be the power rushers, can he handle that and transition inside? Evidence came this year, when he was challenged in pass protection at that left tackle spot, and he should do a pretty good job kicking inside."
Runyan came to Michigan as an unheralded three-star prospect in the 2015 recruiting class, and got off to a bit of a slow start in the winged helmet.
He redshirted as a freshman in 2015 and only appeared in one game in 2016, before starting a lone contest as a redshirt sophomore in 2017.
Runyan's career then took off as a redshirt junior in 2018, with the Moorestown, N.J., native earning the starting nod in all 13 games at left tackle, while earning first-team All-Big Ten honors from the coaches in the process.
He then reclaimed his starting role as a fifth-year senior this past season, though he missed the first two contests against Middle Tennessee State and Army due to injury.
Runyan nonetheless earned first-team all-conference honors from the media in 2019, while sharing the team's top offensive lineman award with Bredeson.
He wrapped up his career in Ann Arbor with 34 appearances, 26 of which were starts (25 at left tackle and one at right tackle).
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