Tristan Wirfs keeps showing why Iowa offensive linemen carry such weight in the NFL.
The Mount Vernon, Iowa native was named to the league’s Top 100 Players list again, landing at No. 52 this year. That’s a drop from No. 28 a season ago, but the reason is straightforward: Wirfs battled multiple injuries last season, missed the start of the 2025 regular season, and sat out a total of five games. When he’s healthy, though, he sits in the conversation for the best offensive tackle in football.
That’s become a familiar place for Wirfs. In 2024, he signed a five-year, $140.63 million extension with $88.24 million guaranteed, which is the most guaranteed money ever given to an offensive tackle. The deal only reinforced what the league already knows about him: he’s one of the premier blockers in the game.
Wirfs’ resume backs it up. He became the only player in NFL history to earn First-Team All-Pro honors at both left and right tackle. He also has a Super Bowl title from 2020, First-Team All-Pro selections in 2021 and 2024, and five Pro Bowl nods from 2021 through 2025.
His rise started at Iowa, where the Hawkeyes turned a freakish athlete into a first-round pick. Wirfs was a standout in football and wrestling at the high school level, and his athleticism was obvious even before he reached the NFL.
At Iowa, that talent got refined. He became a First-Team All-American in 2019 after, among other things, jumping out of the deep end of a pool during the summer.
Wirfs is part of a larger pattern under Kirk Ferentz. Since taking over in 1999, Ferentz has sent more than 100 players to the NFL, including a program-record seven in the 2026 NFL Draft. Three of those seven were offensive linemen, another reminder of where Iowa has built its reputation.
That reputation is only growing. Former Hawkeye Tyler Linderbaum also landed a major payday this offseason, signing with the Las Vegas Raiders and becoming one of the highest-paid centers in the NFL. Linderbaum spent his first four seasons in Baltimore blocking for Lamar Jackson before the Ravens declined his fifth-year option and failed to reach an agreement before he reached free agency.
Between Linderbaum and Wirfs, the market keeps making the same point Iowa fans have heard for years: the program develops linemen who are ready to play, ready to earn, and ready to stay on NFL lists like this one.
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