The Jaguars are making a surprising investment in offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen after the 27-year-old stepped up as a clutch injury replacement for the team this year. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Van Lanen will remain in Jacksonville on a three-year, $51MM extension that includes $32.5MM of guarantees and could see an increase of $4MM with incentives. 
Van Lanen’s deal come on the heels of a similar extension for wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. Per Michael DiRocco, also of ESPN, the Jaguars felt the need to get both deals done, as “using the franchise tag was not an option for either player.”
Van Lanen, a sixth-round pick out of Wisconsin back in 2021, only played in one game for the Packers after his hometown team drafted him. He failed to make the initial 53-man roster as a rookie and signed to the practice squad with just one elevation. He did sign a reserve/futures deal with Green Bay at end of the year, but after spending the offseason and most of the preseason with the team, Van Lanen was traded to the Jaguars in exchange for a seventh-round pick.
Van Lanen served mostly as a special teamer in his first season in Duval. Jacksonville only put him on the field with the offense for 18 snaps that year, but his versatility showed early as those snaps came at left tackle (1), right guard (11), and left guard (6). In 2023, Van Lanen’s role would’ve been reduced to just special teams or, even worse, a healthy scratch in several weeks, but injuries to right tackle Cam Robinson (and a few other backup linemen) put Van Lanen at that spot for parts of two games as an injury replacement.
Last year, Van Lanen didn’t appear in a game until Week 9, playing only three offensive snaps over his first four games of the season before finally earning his first career NFL start at right tackle. Two weeks later he was forced to sub into a game very early at left tackle before starting the final two games of the season at the position he held down when he was a Badger.
Even this season, Van Lanen entered in a backup capacity, and even though he got a few snaps in Weeks 4 & 7, he didn’t actually start a game until Week 9 for Jacksonville this year. His first start came as just an extra lineman but saw him spend time at left guard, where he would start for an injured Ezra Cleveland the next week. Van Lanen then went back to starting two games at right tackle for an injured Anton Harrison and subbed in for an injured Patrick Mekari at right guard for a week all before taking over for Walker Little at left tackle for the past four weeks of the season.
Van Lanen didn’t just stand in over the past five weeks for Mekari and Little. By the metrics of Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Van Lanen has seemingly outplayed the two veterans in their own positions. So much so, that even when Little returned from injury, the team continued to start Van Lanen and shifted Walker inside to right guard to cover for an injured Mekari. It will be interesting to see how the three players’ roles change into the postseason and next year. Mekari and Little have both held swing tackle roles as versatile linemen in their pasts before being named starter this year, and now Van Lanen has shown he can be more effective as a starter.
The outrageous size of Van Lanen’s extension (for a player who’s only started 12 games in his career and only the last four at left tackle) seems to indicate that he will be getting preference moving forward. The annual average value of his deal ($17MM) surpasses those of both Little ($13.5MM) and Mekari ($12.5MM) as Jacksonville continues to build a shuffleable offensive line full of versatility.
Was with the Packers on their PS, but like most Badgers, the Packers don’t ever have much interest in them even though the NFL has been littered with OL guys. The Packers OL is a complete mess and if he had been given a chance, I’m sure he’d be starting.