A native of Boardman, Ohio, Linsley attended Boardman High School, where he earned first-team All-Federal League, All-Northeast Ohio and second-team All-Ohio honors. He served as a team captain as a senior. He was named to SuperPrep's Midwest Top 30. As a standout athlete, he lettered all four years in track & field, where he was the regional and league champion and a state medalist in the shot put. He also threw the discus, with a top throw of 58.27 meters as a senior. At Ohio State, he considered switching to track and field and quit football entirely. Regarded as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Linsley was listed as the No. 6 offensive guard prospect of his class.
College career
After redshirting his initial year at Ohio State, Linsley saw limited action in six games in 2010, mostly as a reserve right guard or tackle. As a sophomore, he appeared in ten games, still as a reserve. He did see significant action on the PAT and field goal teams as a blocker, though. After playing two seasons at guard, he was designated to succeed All-American center Mike Brewster at center. He started all 12 games at center and help the Buckeyes to post a Big Ten-best 37.2 points per game while ranking second in rushing with an average of 242.2 yards per game on the ground. Linsley was viewed as an integral part of the Buckeyes' offense.
Professional career
Linsley was selected in the fifth round by the Green Bay Packers in the 2014 NFL Draft. On May 15, 2014, he signed a contract with the Packers. In 2014, Linsley was initially supposed to be the Packers' back-up center, but an injury to expected starter JC Tretter late in the preseason made Linsley the surprise starting center for the regular season. After Tretter came back from his injury, Linsley remained as starting center and ended up starting every game during the regular season as well as the 2 playoff games. On September 3, 2016, Linsley was placed on Reserve/PUP to start the season after a lingering hamstring injury. He was activated off PUP on November 5, 2016. On December 30, 2017, Linsley signed a three-year, $25.5 million contract extension with the Packers after starting all 16 games at center in 2017.
