Justin Pugh

BIOGRAPHY

Justin David Pugh was born on August 15th, 1990, in Holland, Pennsylvania. He is an offensive lineman in the NFL. 

He studied at the University of Syracuse and is an offensive guard that has played in multiple teams throughout his NFL career such as the New York Giants and currently with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. In his early years, Pugh attended Council Roch High School in Holland, Pennsylvania, where he began playing football. He was named to the 2008 Pennsylvania Football News All-State Second Team for defense and earned all-area and All-Suburban One League First Team honors as a junior and senior and named second-team all-area as a defensive lineman as a senior. He was named 2008 team MVP and defensive player of the year as a team captain and as a sophomore, he earned second-team all-area honors as an offensive tackle. 

After finishing high school, Pugh committed to the University of Syracuse to play college football for the Syracuse Orange football team. Pugh started all 34 games in which he played at left tackle over his final three seasons at Syracuse where he blocked for a 1,000-yard rusher in each of his three seasons as a starter and credited with 40 TD-resulting blocks and 288 knockdowns during his career. He started all 13 games at LT as a redshirt freshman in 2010 and was named second-team All-Big East while as a sophomore in 2011, started all 12 games for the Orange at LT and earned All-Big East first-team honors. As a junior in 2012, he became Syracuse’s first offensive lineman to earn All-American honors since center John Flannery in 1990 and was also named All-Big East Conference for the third consecutive year, including the second time as a first-team choice. He started the final nine games at LT as a junior, recording 13 TD-resulting blocks for a running attack that scored 21 times and averaged 187.0 yards per game and registered 102 knockdowns, marking the first time an Orange lineman recorded back-to-back seasons of 100+ knockdowns. He also helped the team set school single-season records for completions with 295, TD passes with 26, passing yards with 3,757 and total offense with 6,188 yards which led the Big East and was tied for 17th in the FBS with an average of 476.0 yards per game.

After his junior season, Pugh decided to enter the 2013 NFL Draft where he was selected in the first round by the New York Giants, becoming the highest player selected from Syracuse since Dwight Freeney in 2002. On July 25, 2013, the New York Giants signed Pugh to a four-year contract and was named the starting right tackle to begin his rookie season. He made his first career start and professional regular-season debut with the Giants against the Dallas Cowboys in the season opener. Pugh entered the 2014 season as the starting right tackle started 14 games. In 2015, Pugh started 14 games throughout the season and received high grades, played well throughout the season, and was ranked fifth among all offensive guards in performance grades with +12.5 through the first eight games. By the end of the season, he was ranked the ninth-best offensive guard by Pro Football Focus with an overall grade of 86.7. On April 26, 2016, the New York Giants chose to pick up the fifth-year on Pugh's rookie contract. He was named the starting left tackle to begin the season and through the first nine games, he was ranked as the top offensive left guard in the league by Pro Football Focus with an overall grade of 87.8. In 2017, Pugh started the first eight games and on March 17, 2018, Pugh signed a five-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals and started seven games at right guard in the 2018 season.

On March 17, 2018, Pugh signed a five-year, $45 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals. He started seven games at right guard before suffering a knee injury in Week 10. He was placed on injured reserve on November 13, 2018.

In 2019, Pugh started all 16 games, 14 at left guard and two at right tackle.