Justin Pugh is an NFL player who is currently playing for the Arizona Cardinals as an offensive guard. Pugh played high school football at Council Rock High School South, Holland, Pennsylvania, and college football at Syracuse University.
Following the end of his college career, he was drafted by the New York Giants in the first 1st round of the 2013 NFL Draft. After five seasons with the New York Giants, Justin Pugh signed a $45 million contract with the Cardinals in March 2018, to remain with the team for the next five years.
Justin Pugh Biography
Pugh was born in Holland, Pennsylvania on the 15th day of August 1990 as Justin David Pugh. He attended Council Rock High School South where he began his football career. He initially wanted to be a professional hockey player but changed his mind and decided to settle for the game of football which he was doing pretty well in despite his lanky stature at the time.
By his sophomore year, Justin was making his mark in football, even though he was yet to be beefy and earned the second-team all-area honors as an offensive tackle. In 2008, he was named All-State Second Team for defense by the Pennsylvania Football News. Pugh also earned the 2008 team MVP and defensive player of the year as the captain of the team.
During his junior and senior years, he earned both the all-area and All-Suburban One League First Team honors. As a senior, he was also named a second-team all-area as a defensive lineman.
After high school, he played college football at Syracuse University with the Syracuse Orange football team. Justin Pugh played thirty-four games in his college career that lasted from 2009 to 2012. And in those years, he won All-Big East Conference honors for 3 consecutive seasons. He earned second-team during his sophomore year and first-team during his junior and senior seasons.
He entered the 2013 NFL Draft with a year of college football eligibility remaining and was cleared by the National Football League to compete in the 2013 Senior Bowl since he had already graduated.
NFL Career
Justin Pugh was selected by the New York Giants as the 19th overall in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft and became the 5th offensive tackle and the 7th offensive linemen to be selected in the draft that year.
Pugh also became the highest player to be selected from Syracuse after Dwight Freeney who was 11th overall in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He was also the highest offensive linemen to be selected from Syracuse after Bob Fleck in 1954.
He signed a four-year contract with the franchise worth $8.34 million, this included $7.96 million as guaranteed money and $4.44 million as a signing bonus. After competing with David Diehl for the starting right tackle position at the training camp, coach Tom Coughlin later named him the starting right tackle for that season thus he began his rookie season as a starter.
His performance during the first half of his rookie season wasn’t that good but he made up for the lapses at the second half. During the 2014 season, Justin played fourteen games missing two due to a quad injury. He would also miss two games the following season due to a concussion. That season, Pugh was named the 5th best offensive guard in terms of performance grades.
By the end of the 2015 season, Pro Football Focus named him the 9th best offensive guard with an overall grade of 86.7. In 2016, the franchise picked up the fifth-year, $8.82 million option on Justin Pugh’s rookie contract. Thus, he remained with the team throughout the 2016/2017 season although he suffered several injuries that hampered his performances; he missed five games in 2017 due to a back injury that left him on the injured reserve list.
In March 2018, Pugh signed a $45 million contract with the Cardinals that will keep him in the team for the next five years.
His Salary
With his new contract deal with the Arizona Cardinals, Pugh’s basic salary as at 2018 is $1,000,000. He will also be getting a roster bonus of $31,250 for each game he plays and he is active with a maximum value of $500,000.
At the end of 2018, the offensive guard would have earned $11.5 million, which is inclusive of his roster and signing bonuses.
Justin Pugh Family
Justin was born by Carolyn Gavaghan and David Pugh. His parents separated when he was just five years old. Carolyn said the next three years after her divorce from Pugh wasn’t an easy one for Justin who was in need of a male figure in his life. In 2000, she remarried Frank Gavaghan, who was also a single parent to two son boys who were far older than Justin.
His two oldest brothers played ice hockey and his stepdad was an ice hockey coach so he also fell in love with ice hockey as a child and wanted to be like Wayne Gretzky.
Pugh’s recently lost his biological father, David Pugh to cancer.
His Height, Weight, and Measurements
Pugh towers at a height of 1.93 m or 6 feet 4 inches for which his body weighs 137 kg or 302 lbs. His arm length is 32″ and his hand size is 10 1/4″.
