Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen, who has become one of those rare players who can line up just about anywhere and make things better.
If you’ve watched “Sons of Anarchy,” Kurt Sutter’s outstanding biker drama series (and if you haven’t, I HIGHLY recommend it),
you know why none of the guys in SAMCRO ever wanted to go Nomad. For bikers, Nomad meant that they had no home, no home charter, and no brothers to protect them on a day-to-day basis. They were roaming the earth without connection.
It’s entirely possible that the NFL’s version of a Nomad is the offensive lineman who is required to flip positions multiple times in a season. In these cases, continuity is obviously upset, assignments and responsibilities change at lightning speed, and if you fall apart, you’re falling apart all over the place. As much as the truly great offensive linemen are highly regarded for their ability to dominate at one or two positions, those linemen who can move from spot to spot in the blink of an eye are coveted by their teammates and coaches, even when the general public doesn’t know their names.
Cole Van Lanen of the Jaguars has become perhaps the NFL’s ultimate Nomad. Selected in the sixth round of the 2021 draft by the Green Bay Packers out of Wisconsin, Van Lanen barely played for his first NFL team in his rookie year, with a grand total of one regular-season snap. The Packers signed him to a reserve/future contract in January, 2022, but then traded him to the Jags in August, 2022 for a seventh-round draft pick in 2023.
Van Lanen was also a bit player with the Jags in 2022 and 2023, totaling 71 snaps at right guard and right tackle. It wasn’t until 2024 that he became more of an integral part of the offense, with 252 total snaps — 187 at left tackle, 60 at right tackle, and five as the sixth offensive lineman in the team’s jumbo packages. Overall, he allowed one sack and nine total pressures.
More importantly, in the transition from Doug Pederson to Liam Coen, Van Lanen impressed enough people in the building for the new staff to give him more reps. Van Lanen struggled with a shoulder issue in the preseason, but Coen had already seen enough to keep an eye on the guy.
“Yeah, Cole, I think it’s usually when an O-lineman isn’t getting noticed all that much, they’re doing a good job,” Coen said on Sept. 5. “I don’t want to say he’s the definition of that, but that kind of happens with him where it’s just he does his job and he does his job above average. So, you’re like, man, this guy can step in and be able to help us at multiple positions. So, I’ve always been pleased with his commitment to the guys and to the plan, the way he kind of goes about his business, I’ve been pleased with. He’s a good dude to be around. It was a shame that he was really playing well when he got banged up, but it’ll be great to get him back into the fold and get him some quality reps with those guys.”
Van Lanen displayed his versatility with credible reps at left guard, right guard, and right tackle, but it wasn’t until starting left tackle Walker Little suffered a concussion in Week 13 against the Tennessee Titans that he really started showing off. Van Lanen got 35 left tackle snaps against Tennessee after Little’s concussion, and he started there in Week 14 against the Indianapolis Colts, and in last Sunday’s 48-20 demolition of the New York Jets.
Is it a coincidence that Van Lanen’s games at left tackle have aligned with a three-game stretch in which Trevor Lawrence has completed 53 of 89 passes for nine touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 123.0? Well, given that Little had allowed nine sacks and 29 total pressures in 472 pass-blocking reps, and Van Lanen has allowed no sacks and three total pressures in 161 pass-blocking reps at left tackle, it probably helps.
Left guard Ezra Cleveland, who has obviously lined up right next to Van Lanen on those left tackle snaps, talked on Monday about his teammate’s rare versatility.
“Yeah, I’ve never done it personally and I don’t think a lot of O-linemen have actually done it,” Cleveland said. “But to play at the level he’s playing at, what is it, four different positions now? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s unheard of. [OL] Pat Mekari has a little bit of experience doing that too, so he could answer it a little better. But besides those two, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do that. So, it’s really cool that he’s doing it, and it’s fun to be to be a part of it, and play next to him, and see what he’s doing to prepare in the offensive line room, and be a part of it.”
Last week, offensive coordinator Grant Udinski perfectly summarized the value of Van Lanen’s versatility.
“In the NFL, I’ve probably mentioned this a couple of times, you know you’re going to go through the whole year and probably not be able to start the same five guys for every single snap for the whole year. So, it’s really important that that room specifically to have a unit of guys that you feel can go out and start. Because whether you like it or not, at some point we’re going to need it. We did need it, and he went out and answered the bell as he went out there in multiple positions in different weeks and did it. So, it’s a testament to the preparation, the work, and it’s a huge luxury for us as coaches to have that depth in that room. And not only to have that depth, to have that cohesion in the room where the guys who can start, you’ve got eight guys, sometimes seven guys, you can still feel good about starting five no matter what the mix and match is. That’s awesome.”
It is awesome, though the Jaguars’ offensive line faces a severe test this Sunday in the Denver Broncos’ demonic, multi-dimensional pass rush. No matter where he is in the mix, Cole Van Lanen will be happy to help.
