photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas offensive lineman Enrique Cruz Jr. speaks to reporters at the conclusion of the Kansas Football Pro Day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Lawrence.

Starting at tackle for the Kansas football team has been a reliable path to professional opportunities in recent seasons.

The Jayhawks’ two tackles from the 2024 season, Logan Brown and Bryce Cabeldue, won Super Bowl rings last month with the Seattle Seahawks.

“I actually just met them when I got here,” said Enrique Cruz Jr., a former Syracuse transfer who succeeded Brown at right tackle in 2025, his lone year at KU. “Just meeting them and asking them about how the process went, how the career was, to now seeing them get Super Bowl rings, it’s just an amazing opportunity. Congratulations to them.”

Back in 2023, Dominick Puni started opposite Cabeldue, and he’s been an immediate starter at guard for the San Francisco 49ers since they selected him in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. And a handful of other KU linemen have received chances at the professional level as well during head coach Lance Leipold’s tenure.

“In the last few years, the majority of our guys have gotten those opportunities, either through draft or free agent opportunities,” Leipold said, “and I think you’ll see all three guys that started this year as seniors get the same thing.”

He’s speaking of Cruz as well as Kobe Baynes and Bryce Foster, all of whom took part on Wednesday as KU hosted its Pro Day at its indoor practice facility. Nolan Gorczyca also participated in the event.

“(Offensive line coach Daryl Agpalsa) does a really good job here,” Cruz said. “He’s done a good job with not just me, with Kobe, Bryce Cabeldue, Logan Brown. So you know, it’s amazing to be a part of it.”

While Baynes and Foster had productive multi-year careers as Jayhawks and, as Leipold said, may well get their own shots in the NFL, Cruz has been a particularly strong offseason standout and may have played himself into consideration for April’s draft.

“I got a great team behind me and a great support system, so it’s gone real smooth,” he said of the offseason, adding of his Pro Day appearance on Wednesday, “It was great being back in Kansas. You know, the sun shines a little different out here.”

The Chicago native did well enough at the American Bowl, an all-star competition in Lakeland, Florida, that was staging its first-ever game, and earned an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. That national event recently concluded with Cruz as one of the top performers among offensive linemen with a 4.94-second 40-yard dash, 35-inch vertical jump and 9-foot, 8-inch broad jump, to the point that NFL.com named him to its all-combine team.

“I know I’ve had that in me my whole career,” he said. “I always had it in me. A lot of people were doubting me, and I just live to prove the doubters wrong.”

It wasn’t a straightforward path for Cruz to earn consideration from pro teams. As Leipold noted on Wednesday, by the time Cruz left Syracuse in the spring of 2025, he was no longer starting for the Orange (although he had spent the prior season as his team’s left tackle).

“He was a big tackle that fit a need and what we were looking for,” Leipold said. “We were very impressed with him … We were looking to really fill the void. But as he kind of went through progressing and getting better and better through camp and the way he started playing, really, by the time we hit conference play, we thought that this could be a possibility for him.”

Cruz had to win the starting job at right tackle in a position battle with Gorczyca and also rotated with him at times throughout the year. But indeed, once it came time for league play, the 6-foot-6, 320-pounder started to produce some of his best performances of the season (79.5 on Pro Football Focus against Cincinnati, 75.3 against Oklahoma State and 79.6 against Arizona).

Cruz said he chose KU in the first place because when he went to Lawrence for his only visit as a transfer tackle, he “fell in love with Kansas at first sight.” Looking back on the move to join the Jayhawks, he said, “I think it unfolded the way it needed to unfold, and it’s probably one of the best decisions I made in my life.”

Cruz was one of 23 Jayhawks taking part in Wednesday’s Pro Day, the first KU had held on campus in three years after the Big 12 had briefly moved to centralized conference events in Frisco, Texas.

Leipold said the Big 12 Pro Day had good intentions and followed through on some of its objectives, and he wouldn’t be surprised if something like it returned down the line, but there were good reasons to return to individual events.

“The players wanted to train where they’ve had a chance to do most of their offseason training before,” he said. “It’s more comfortable. That was always a concern. There was a concern a little bit on the time the length and people there, so there were just some things.”

Ultimately, he viewed Wednesday’s event as “a great day for our program, for these departing seniors, having an opportunity to fulfill a dream, an opportunity to play at the highest level of football.”

“Awful proud of them and what they’ve done, whether they were here for their whole career or a short stint,” he said. “To have this type of turnout of scouts today says a lot about them as individuals.”

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas offensive lineman Enrique Cruz Jr., left, works out with Nolan Gorczyca during Kansas Football’s pro day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the Anderson Football Complex in Lawrence.