Lessons Learned While I Got To Work With Marshal Yanda

One of the coolest things for me when I worked at Iowa was during the off-season seeing all the NFL hawks come and train in the facility. One of them was future NFL Hall of Famer Marshal Yanda. Marshal lived back in Iowa and would enjoy down time with his family - but would train his tail off Mon-Fri or sometimes Mon-Thurs. Often times he would train with the team, other times he would train with the pro day guys, other times I would get to train him 1 on 1. This was a treat for me being a former OL myself and getting to work with/learn from someone like Marshal. A few times I got to work with Yanda and Riley Reiff (former 1st round draft pick of the Detroit Lions. As a former OL myself getting to work with a 1st round draft pick and All Pro OL was a dream come true.



Marshal went to Juco before he went to Iowa. From Iowa he went to the Ravens and was a lifer for the Ravens. As you see in the image above he won the Super Bowl with the Raves and was All Pro 7 times!



He was also so good at football he was named to the NFL Top 100 players as voted on by the players. For those who don't understand how impressive that is let me put that in context. The NFL would have players rank the best players in the league. Typically this is skill players and some DL (who get sacks). Offensive linemen do not have stats and usually are thought of as a unit - not individual. So for Yanda to be ranked #37 out of 100 as voted by the players shows something.

Yanda was so good and so tough that he played a season with torn rotator cuff. Yanda was usually the RG and that meant his left arm was his inside arm. As an OL you are taught you cannot let people cross your face - thus your inside arm was critical to your success and keeping the DL from crossing your face. When he hurt his left shoulder in-season - he moved to LG so he could use his right shoulder as the inside arm. I knew this from him telling me - but it also was public info (1). Rather than go on IR and let his team down he moved positions. TOUGH.

Guess what - none of this might have happened if Yanda didn't "get it together" when he first got to college. Like I said earlier - Yanda was a JUCO transfer. He was talented but not disciplined - his own words. He told me a story about his first week at Iowa. He over slept one day of training. Strike one. Then Friday of that same first week she wanted to be early so he got there 15 min early. At least he thought he did. The groups started 30 min early on Friday so the players could get more time away. Now he was 15 min late. And it was his 2nd late in his first week. He was in the dog house he said.

But he did not give up. He took his verbal lashings, knew it came from coaches who wanted to see him succeed. They knew he had talent and needed to be more disciplined. In the end, it appeared Yanda figured it out. Next stop for him - NFL H.O.F



Source:

Baltimore Ravens. https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/marshal-yanda-proved-his-toughness-again-in-switch-to-left-guard-18129942#:~:text=Marshal%20Yanda%20Proved%20His%20Toughness%20Again%20In%20Switch%20To%20Left%20Guard,-Nov%2022%2C%202016&text=Add%20this%20to%20Marshal%20Yanda's,sides%20on%20the%20offensive%20line.