Wisconsin is known to be an offensive line factory for NFL teams, as year-after-year news comes out about a former Badger offensive lineman in the NFL getting a big payday or signing their second or third contract with a team.
Just last year there were eight Wisconsin products up front for NFL teams with some of the highest earners being the Saints’ Ryan Ramczyk at $2.4 million, Kevin Zeitler at $5 million, Rick Wagner at $11.9 million and Travis Frederick at $10.97 million.
One of the most impressive and hard-to-believe stats about Barry Alvarez‘s football program being an incredible offensive line pipeline to the NFL: the 2nd-string offensive line to open the 2010 season in Madison is now worth more than $28 million.
The backup line, from left to right, was Robert Burge, Ryan Groy, Frederick, Zeitler and Wagner.
Four of those players, all except for Burge, were on NFL rosters in 2019 and their contracts were as follows:
Ryan Groy: $800,000
Travis Frederick: $10,975,000
Kevin Zeitler: $5,000,000
Rick Wagner: $11,900,000
That’s a combined $28,675,000 given to four players that opened the 2010 season not good enough to make the cut for the starting lineup.
With o-line contracts continuing to grow bigger and bigger–the highest-paid linemen now making upwards of $16 million a year–expect that number for later classes to continue to rise as the Wisconsin program continues to send their standouts up front to the next level.