Justin Pugh Biography, Family, Salary, Height, Weight, Measurements

Justin Pugh is an NFL player who currently plays 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.

After 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 stay on the team for the next five years.

Justin Pugh Biography

Pugh was born on August 15, 1990, in Holland, Pennsylvania, as Justin David Pugh. He attended Council Rock High School South, where he began his football career. Originally, he wanted to become a professional field hockey player, but changed his mind and decided to settle for the game of football, in which, despite his lanky stature, he was doing pretty well at the time.

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By his sophomore year, Justin was already making a name for himself in football, although he was not yet as strong, and as an offensive tackle in the second team, he received the All-Area Honors of the second team. In 2008, he was named the second all-state team for defense by Pennsylvania Football News. As captain of the team, Pugh was also named MVP of the Team 2008 and Defensive Player of the Year.

In his junior and senior years, he has been honored in both the All-Area and All-Suburban One League First Team. In the senior national team, he was also named All-Area Second League Defensive Player of the Year.

After high school, he played college football at the University of Syracuse with the Syracuse Orange soccer team. Justin Pugh played thirty-four games in his college career, which lasted from 2009 to 2012. And in those years he won the All-Big East Conference Honors for 3 consecutive seasons. In his sophomore year, he won the second team and the first in the junior and senior national teams.

He entered the 2013 NFL Draft, leaving one year of college football eligibility, and was approved by the National Football League to play in the 2013 Senior Bowl as he had already graduated.

Justin Pugh NFL Career

Justin Pugh was selected by the New York Giants as 19th overall in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft and was chosen as the fifth offensive tackle and seventh offensive line in the draft of the year.

Pugh also became the highest-ranked player from Syracuse after Dwight Freeney, who finished 11th overall in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He was also the highest offensive linesman selected from Syracuse after Bob Fleck in 1954.

He signed a four-year contract with the franchise worth $8.34 million, including $7.96 million in guarantee money and $4.44 million in signing bonus. After fighting with David Diehl in training camp for the Starting Right Tackle position, coach Tom Coughlin later appointed him the Starting Right Tackle for this season, so he started his rookie season as a starter.

His performance in the first half of his rookie season was not so good, but he made up for the losses in the second half. In the 2014 season, Justin played fourteen games in which he missed two games due to a quadruple injury. He would also miss two games the following season due to a concussion. This season, Pugh was awarded the fifth-best offensive guard in terms of performance rating.

At the end of the 2015 season, Pro Football Focus named him the 9th best offensive guard with an overall score of 86.7. In 2016, the franchise received a five-year $8.82 million option to sign Justin Pugh as a rookie. He remained with the team throughout the 2016/2017 season, despite suffering multiple injuries that impaired his performance; 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 on the team for the next five years.

His Salary

With his new contract with Arizona Cardinals, Pugh’s base salary will be $1,000,000 in 2018. In addition, he will receive a $31,250 player list bonus for every game he plays, and he is active with a maximum value of $500,000.

By the end of 2018, the offensive guard would have earned $11.5 million, which includes his roster and signature bonus.

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Justin Pugh’s Family

Justin was born to Carolyn Gavaghan and David Pugh. His parents separated when he was just five years old. Carolyn said that the next three years after her divorce from Pugh were not easy for Justin, who needed a male figure in his life. In 2000, she remarried Frank Gavaghan, who was also a single parent with two sons far older than Justin.

His two oldest brothers played field hockey and his stepfather was a field hockey coach, so he too fell in love with field hockey as a child and wanted to be like Wayne Gretzky.

Pugh 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″.