Tristan Wirfs

BIOGRAPHY

Tristan Wirfs was born January 24, 1999, in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He is an offensive tackle in the NFL. 

Wirfs grew up in a single-parent household, living in a low-income area near a trailer park Wirfs went to Mount Vernon for high school to play football. He also did track and field and wrestled. He won the state discus throw as a sophomore, and both Iowa State and the Iowa Hawkeyes both offered Wirfs scholarships within the next month. He committed to Iowa in the winter of his junior year in December 2015 and was a four-star recruit. During his senior year of high school, Wirfs helped Mount Vernon to a state semifinal appearance in football. He was named an Army All-American for football and won a state wrestling title in the winter. He also won the discus for the third straight year and shot put for the second consecutive year in the spring. He was honored by the Des Moines Register as the best boys prep athlete in the state. After his high school career, he decided to pursue his love for football at Iowa.

As a true freshman, Wirfs started seven games at right tackle, becoming the first true freshman to start at offensive tackle in the Kirk Ferentz era. Throughout the season, he worked on being more aggressive against defenders. After his sophomore season, Wirfs broke the Hawkeyes hang clean record held by Brandon Scherff, setting the new mark at 450 pounds. He also said a focus of his junior season would be to translate his weight room exploits to the field. An injury during spring practice caused Wirfs to miss a few weeks of practice. Following his junior season, he was selected to the First Team All-Big Ten and named the conference lineman of the year. After the end of his college career, he declared for the draft and was picked #13 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after exceeding expectations at the combine. He will be a crucial piece in protecting their newly acquired QB Tom Brady.

Wirfs started 13 out of 17 games for the Buccaneers. He missed three games after suffering an ankle injury and was inactive for the team's final regular season game as it did not impact playoff seeding. Wirfs was named to his second career Pro Bowl and 2nd-Team All-Pro.