Staying close to home
Darien’s Stueber selected by Patriots in seventh round
Darien’s Andrew Stueber won’t be far from home when he begins his NFL career.
The 6-foot-7, 325-pound offensive lineman out of Michigan was selected by New England in the seventh round, 245th overall, in the 2022 NFL Draft on Saturday.
Stueber, who saw action at tackle and guard at Michigan, was an All-Big Ten first team selection and an All-American second team player as selected by the American Football Coaches Association in 2021.
He was projected as a seventh-round draft pick by many analysts and mock drafts.
Stueber had missed his junior season with the Wolverines in 2019 due to an ACL injury, but returned to play in six games as a senior in 2020. He used his graduate season in 2021 and started 14 games for a unit which received the Joe Moore Award as the top offensive line in the country.
His former Darien head coach Rob Trifone said it was “an honor to have worked with a young man of his caliber, and I don’t mean that just athletically. From the day I met him, you could tell that he was a wonderful young man and a hard-worker.”
Trifone said he was recently texting with Stueber, reminiscing about a meeting the coach had with the player and his mom when Stueber was an incoming freshman. Trifone mentioned that Stueber had the potential to be a scholarship player.
Shortly after the meeting ended, Trifone received a text from Stueber: “Coach, I’m all in.”
While Stueber was at Michigan, Trifone said he kept in touch.
“I let him do his thing, but I also wanted to let him know that I love him and I’m always thinking about
him,” Trifone said.
According to The Michigan Insider, Stueber played 927 snaps in 2021 “and graded out exceptionally well as a pass-blocker.” He surrendered just one sack and 11 quarterback pressures.
Michigan has had five players drafted thus far, including first-rounders in DE Aidan Hutchinson, who was picked second overall by Detroit, and DB Daxton Hill, picked 31st by Cincinnati. LB David Ojabo was taken by Baltimore in the second round, and RB Hassan Haskins was a fourth-round pick of Tennessee.
A 2017 graduate of Darien High School, Stueber helped the Blue Wave football team win state championships in 2015 and 2016. He was an All-State player and one of the state’s top recruits, drawing offers from Boston College, Penn State and Tennessee, and
interest from Yale and Harvard, before choosing Michigan.
After redshirting his freshman season at Michigan, Stueber made an impact as a sophomore in 2018, appearing in all 13 games on special teams, and 11 games, including two
starts, at right tackle.
After the lost 2019 season, Stueber returned to action in 2020 and became a steady part of the offensive line.