Thayer Munford Jr. (born September 18, 1999) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

for the

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of the

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(NFL). He played

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for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

Early life

Munford grew up in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

and initially attended La Salle High School. Before his senior year, he moved to

Massillon, Ohio Massillon is a city in western Stark County, Ohio, United States, along the Tuscarawas River. The population was 32,146 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Massillon is a principal city of the Canton–Massillon metropolitan area, whic ...

and transferred to

Massillon Washington High School Washington High School, commonly referred to as Massillon High School or Massillon Washington High School, is a 9th to 12th grade secondary school within the Massillon City School District in the city of Massillon, Ohio. The school colors are ...

who were coached by his former coach at La Salle, Nate Moore. Moore and his wife took legal custody of Munford shortly before his senior year. He was originally ruled ineligible by the

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after it was ruled that his transfer was a violation of the organization's recruiting rules. The ruling was later reversed and Munford was eligible for the final three games of the season. Munford was rated a four star recruit and committed to play

at Ohio State over offers from Kentucky, Iowa, and Pittsburgh.

College career

Munford played as a reserve offensive lineman as a freshman. He was named a starter going into his sophomore season and started the first 13 games of the season before suffering a back injury. Munford started all of the Buckeyes games as a junior and was named second team All-Big Ten Conference. As a senior, he was named first team All-Big Ten after starting all seven of Ohio State's games in the team's

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-shortened 2020 season. After considering entering the 2021 NFL Draft, Munford decided to utilize the extra year of eligibility granted to college athletes who played in the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic and return to Ohio State for a fifth season. He was moved to left guard prior to the start of the season. Munford was named first team All-Big Ten and a first team All-American by the

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in his final season. He moved back to the tackle position for the

2022 Rose Bowl The 2022 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2022, with kickoff at 5:13 p.m. EST (2:13 p.m. local PST) and televised on ESPN. It was the 108th edition of the Rose Bowl Game, and was one of the 2021–22 bo ...

, his last game at Ohio State, after Nicholas Petit-Frere opted out of the game to prepare for the

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

Professional career

Munford was selected by the

in the seventh round, 238th overall, of the

2022 NFL draft The 2022 NFL draft was the 87th edition of the National Football League's annual NFL draft, draft and was held from April 28–30, 2022, at the Caesars Forum on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, Paradise next to Las Vegas. The first round ...

. As a rookie, he appeared in all 17 games and started four. He appeared in 15 games and started ten in the 2023 season.

References

External links

Las Vegas Raiders bioOhio State Buckeyes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munford, Thayer Living people American football offensive tackles Players of American football from Cincinnati Ohio State Buckeyes football players All-American college football players 1999 births Las Vegas Raiders players