Cordell Volson

Volson grew up in Balfour, North Dakota, a town with a population of 27, and attended Drake-Anamoose High School.^[1] He played offensive line, defensive line, tight end, fullback, linebacker, punter, and kicker on the school's nine-man football team.^[2] Volson committed to play college football at North Dakota State over offers from Wyoming and North Dakota.^[3]

Volson redshirted his true freshman season at North Dakota State.^[4] He played mostly on special teams as a redshirt freshman and sophomore.^[5] He was named a starter going into his redshirt junior season and was named first-team All-Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) after starting all 16 of NDSU's games as the team won the 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game.^[6] He was a consensus FCS All-American selection during his redshirt senior season, which was shortened and played in the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Volson decided to utilize the extra year of eligibility granted to college athletes who played in the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic and return to NDSU for a sixth season.^[7]

Volson was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the fourth round (136th overall) of the 2022 NFL draft.^[10][11] He would outright win the starting left guard job as a rookie over Jackson Carman.^[12] Volson would finish the season with 1107 snaps, the most of any Bengals player that season.^[13]