Wisconsin Football: Jon Dietzen announces he will step away from football

Wisconsin Football offensive lineman Jon Dietzen has struggled with injuries throughout his career, and on Monday, he announced his retirement from the game.

Football can be a punishing sport to play, and perhaps no position on the gridiron endures more of a beating on a daily basis than the offensive line. Playing in the trenches over several years would take a toll on the bodies of most human beings, even the toughest among us.

Jon Dietzen has been the epitome of the word “tough” throughout his Badger career, finding a way to make an impact within a deep and talented Wisconsin line group over the last three seasons despite battling multiple significant injuries along the way.

Unfortunately, in the end, Dietzen reached a point where the toll of those injuries proved to be too taxing to continue playing, and on Monday, he took to Twitter to announce that he would be stepping away from football.

Dietzen, who would have been a redshirt senior for the Badgers in 2019, had been a starter since he was a redshirt freshman during the 2016 season. Like many Wisconsin linemen, he was a versatile component capable of playing multiple positions along the line, starting 20 total games at left guard in 2016 and 2017 and 12 of 13 games at left tackle this past season.

Already faced with the graduation of seniors Michael Deiter and Beau Benzschawel to go along with David Edwards’ early entry into this spring’s NFL draft, the Badgers will now be replacing four of their five starters on the line from 2018 with the loss of Dietzen. Center Tyler Biadasz will be the only returning piece from that group after deciding to come back to school after initially exploring his draft prospects.

That being said, Wisconsin fans should feel very excited about the potential of the players that will be in the mix to fill those vacancies around Biadasz.

It all starts with Cole Van Lanen, who played in all 13 games while splitting time with Dietzen at left tackle as a redshirt sophomore last season and is likely a lock to be the full-time starter there in 2019. He performed so well that Pro Football Focus had the Bay Port (WI) native graded as their top offensive tackle in the entire country, ahead of studs like Alabama’s Jonah Williams and Kansas State’s Dalton Risner, who are both likely to be selected very high in the upcoming NFL draft.

Based on what we saw seen from Van Lanen so far, don’t be shocked if this is his final season in Madison. Like Williams and Risner, he should be a blue-chip pro prospect when his time comes in 2020.

With the emergence of Van Lanen, Dietzen was likely set to slide over and start at left guard in 2019. In his place, look for Kayden Lyles (who has moved back to offense after playing defensive end this past season) and David Moorman (the No. 2 on the depth chart at left guard behind Deiter in 2018) to emerge as the two major contenders to fill that role.