Raleigh McKenzie #63, Guard and Center for the Washington Redskins during the American Football Conference West game against the San Diego Chargers on 21 September 1986 at the Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego, California, United States. The Redskins won the game 30 - 27. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Allsport/Getty Images)
Top 10 NFL careers of Tennessee football O-Linemen
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
These are the 10 best pro careers of Tennessee football Volunteers offensive linemen.
Note: This is part of a series of posts looking back on Tennessee football players who had the best NFL careers at each position.
With so much success in the single-wing and then a period of dominance while led by a former offensive lineman as head coach in the modern era, Tennessee football has naturally filled the NFL with great blockers over the years. Players from those ranks are a huge reason the Vols have been able to produce lots of elite running backs.
Even in the recent years, when the Vols had their failed experiment with the spread offense under Butch Jones before returning to the pro-style under Jeremy Pruitt, they managed to produce pro offensive linemen. Rocky Top is just a great place for guys up front to look at if they’re trying to turn into top-notch players at the next level.
The return of Jim Chaney as offensive coordinator, a former offensive lineman himself, combined with Jeremy Pruitt’s focus on the trenches could make Tennessee football more of an elite program on the offensive line in the future. Tackles, guards and centers are once again on the rise there, and they would be filling a great tradition that made the program under Robert Neyland.
In this post, we’re going to rank those offensive linemen from UT based on the successful careers they had in the NFL. The Vols have produced numerous Pro Bowl linemen, Super Bowl winners and blockers who were models of consistency for more than a decade.
Some of these blockers had great careers despite being completely overlooked in the draft, either by falling into one of the later rounds or not being taken at all. In some cases, they even became the leaders of the offenses they anchored.
Which players up front are we talking about? Who turned Rocky Top into a program built on winning in the trenches? Let’s look back on the ones who did and went on to have success at the next level. These are the 10 greatest NFL careers of offensive linemen who played for Tennessee football in college.
