Transfer SZN: Oklahoma's Top 10 Transfers of the Last 20 Years: No. 5, Lane Johnson

Johnson arrived as a tight end from Kilgore Junior College with zero fanfare, then turned himself into the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.

The NCAA transfer portal is always open. With 10 transfers over the last two seasons — including five Division I transfers new to the Oklahoma roster in 2021 — OU has made a living off transfers in recent years. Every Tuesday this summer, SI Sooners examines Oklahoma's 10 best transfers of the last 20 years. (Josh Heupel and Torrance Marshall, class of ’99, are outside of that time frame.)

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No. 5: The Lane Train

Imagine the recruiting hype that might have come with Lane Johnson’s arrival at the University Oklahoma.

A man who would become the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history chooses one of the college game’s most tradition-rich schools? Recruiting websites and fans who follow “the lifeblood of college football” couldn’t get enough.

Now, envision Johnson getting to Norman as nothing more than an afterthought in the 2009 recruiting class — a junior college prospect so disregarded that he wasn’t actually in the 2009 media guide, a transfer who arrived late enough in the school year that almost no one outside the Switzer Center realized he was on the team.

That was Lane Johnson’s entry into Sooner football — and then things really got weird.

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Read More Top 10 Transfers

• No. 10 C.J. Ah You
• No. 9 Allen Patrick
• No. 8 Lance Mitchell
• No. 7 Phil Loadholt
• No. 6 Marquise Brown

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Johnson was an honorable mention All-State quarterback in Groveton, TX. He was tall, 6-foot-6, and athletic, around 240 pounds. He threw the shot put in high school, too, finishing fourth in the state as a senior.

He never envisioned that one day he’d be an All-Big 12 Conference offensive lineman, or that he’d set the standard for right tackles in the NFL, or that he’d land the most lucrative contract in NFL history for an offensive lineman.

Johnson went to Kilgore Junior College as a QB and played that position in 2008, but the spring of 2009 he switched to tight end. He got to OU just before the 2009 season began and redshirted. He thought he was a tight end, and so did the coaches.

When the 2010 spring began, Johnson was a tight end for offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson. But coaches saw something else in Johnson. Stuck on the depth chart behind tight ends James Hanna and Trent Ratterree and versatile fullback Trey Millard, Johnson moved to defensive end midway through the 2010 fall season.

That didn’t last either.

Johnson played defensive end the rest of that season and into the spring before switching back to offense, where in 2011 his long frame and ridiculous athletic ability forced him to the top of the depth chart at right tackle.

Johnson’s position coach in 2011 was Bruce Kittle, a first-year OU assistant whose only football coaching experience was in 1982-84 as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Iowa (where he was Bob Stoops’ teammate) and 2006-10 in junior high and high school.

Still, Johnson became a reliable starter in 2011, then emerged as a star under Kittle in 2012, when he started 11 of 13 games at left tackle and was named CBS Sports third-team All-American and second-team All-Big 12.

Johnson’s career, however, was still in its infancy.

He attended the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine and ran the 40 in 4.72 seconds. He also broad-jumped 118 inches, posted a 34-inch vertical jump and bench-pressed 28 reps. NFL teams saw how he paired that athleticism — on a 6-6, 303-pound frame — with productivity and efficiency on the field, and Johnson became the No. 4 overall pick in the draft and an immediate starter with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Johnson made first-team All-Pro in 2017, and he’s been voted to three Pro Bowls. He’s widely regarded as the best right tackle in the NFL, and he was rewarded as such with a five-year, $63 million contract in 2016.

He’s started all 99 games of his NFL career so far, and in 2019 signed a four-year, $72 million deal that made him the highest-paid lineman in NFL history (an honor that has since gone back to former Sooner Trent Williams).