Tanner Hawkinson (born May 14, 1990) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

offensive tackle who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL). Hawkinson played in college at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

. He was selected by the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

in the fifth round of the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall i ...

Early years

Hawkinson was an all-state defensive lineman and tight end at

McPherson High School McPherson High School is a public high school for grades 9–12 in McPherson, Kansas, United States. It is operated by McPherson USD 418 school district. Each grade has an average of 200 to 300 students. Notable alumni *Brad Underwood (Class of ...

McPherson, Kansas McPherson () is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 14,082. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general. It ...

, graduating in 2008.

College career

He was recruited to KU to play tight end, but moved to defense, and eventually ended up on the offensive line. He was a freshman All-American in 2009 at tackle for the University of Kansas protecting Todd Reesing's blind side. Hawkinson was also a second-team All Big-12 player as a senior in 2012. He had three coaches in his five years at KU in

Mark Mangino Mark Thomas Mangino (born August 26, 1956) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Kansas from 2002 to 2009. In 2007, Mangino received several national coach of the year honors after leading ...

Turner Gill Turner Hillery Gill (born August 13, 1962) is an American college athletic administrator and former gridiron football player and coach. He is the Executive Director of Student-Athlete and Staff Development at the University of Arkansas, a positio ...

, and

Charlie Weis Charles Joseph Weis Sr. (born March 30, 1956) is a former American football coach. He was the head coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 2005 to 2009 and the Kansas Jayhawks from 2012 to 2014. He also served as an offensive coordinator in ...

Professional career

He was selected in the fifth round, 156th overall in the

. Hawkinson was waived by Cincinnati as part of the final 53-man roster cuts on September 5, 2015. On September 7, 2015, Hawkinson was signed to the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

practice squad. On April 4, 2016 Hawkinson was claimed off waivers by the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

after having spent the 2015 season with the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

. Hawkinson announced his retirement from the NFL at the age of 25 on April 15, 2016.

References

External links

Kansas Jayhawks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkinson, Tanner 1990 births Living people American football offensive guards American football offensive tackles Kansas Jayhawks football players Cincinnati Bengals players San Francisco 49ers players Philadelphia Eagles players Jacksonville Jaguars players Players of American football from Kansas People from McPherson, Kansas