Coachspeak: Michigan’s Warinner on Runyan

The coach who sent Corey Linsley to Green Bay sees big things for sixth-round pick Jon Runyan.

Bill Huber | May 31, 2020

GREEN BAY, Wis. – As the son of longtime NFL offensive tackle Jon Runyan Sr., Michigan’s Jon Runyan Jr. wasn’t content simply emerging from his father’s enormous shadow.

“I’m trying to step out and make an even bigger one,” he said during a conference call after being selected in the sixth round by the Green Bay Packers.

With the help of Ed Warinner, Runyan did just that.

Warinner, who coached Corey Linsley while at Ohio State, took over as Michigan’s offensive line coach in 2018. At the time, Runyan had started one game at right tackle in three years with the Wolverines but was mostly a backup guard. For spring practices in 2018, Warinner put Runyan at right tackle.

“At the end of spring ball, I thought he was our best tackle so I moved him to left tackle,” Warinner said last week.

It was a decision that paved Runyan’s path to the draft.

“The first year he started at Michigan, he made first-team all-Big Ten from nothing – not honorable mention, not anything the year before to first-team all-Big Ten,” Warinner said. “He went from playing 100 snaps to playing 900 snaps. That’s how he took off as a player and grew. I think the biggest thing for him was confidence. Once we got him in his spot and he got real comfortable, he developed a tremendous amount of confidence. He plays that way.”

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Published May 31, 2020

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.