Recognizing Calvin Anderson's place in the line of NFL left tackles produced by Texas

Calvin Anderson doesn’t get enough credit for what he did during his lone season in a Texas uniform. A transfer from Rice who started each of the Longhorns’ 14 games during a 10-win season in 2018, Anderson brought stability to a Texas offensive line that, at the time, was in desperate need of a consistent, stabilizing force.

When Connor Williams went down with a knee injury in the third game of the 2017 season, the Longhorns couldn’t find an adequate replacement. Denzel Okafor (four starts) and Tristan Nickelson (two starts) started the six full games Williams missed, and Elijah Rodriguez started the Texas Bowl win over Missouri after Williams (who returned to the field for a win over West Virginia and a loss to Texas Tech) opted out of the postseason.

Texas utilized nine different starting offensive line combinations in Tom Herman’s first season. That changed in 2018, with Samuel Cosmi replacing Derek Kerstetter at right tackle after a season-opening loss to Maryland and Rodriguez starting four games in place of an injured Zack Shackelford, accounting for the only lineup changes Herman, Tim Beck and Herb Hand had to make that season.

An honorable mention All-Big 12 selection, Anderson not only provided steady blind-side protection during Sam Ehlinger’s first full season as QB1 (26 pressures allowed in 14 games after the program’s left tackles allowed 41 pressures in 13 games in 2017, according to Pro Football Focus), but his arrival also afforded the staff the luxury of letting Cosmi develop.

Cosmi didn’t have to bear the weight of expectations that would’ve come with taking over for Williams (an All-American in 2016 and a 2018 second-round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys). Instead, Cosmi continued to move along the developmental track he established while redshirting in 2017. After a USA Today Freshman All-American season in 2018, Cosmi became a two-time All-Big 12 selection, starting 34 games before Washington took him in the second round of the 2021 draft (he’s entering the third year of a four-year, $74 million extension he signed with the team in 2024).

Texas went a decade without producing an NFL draft pick at left tackle, with Williams becoming the first since Tony Hills was picked in the fourth round of the 2008 draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Anderson wasn’t drafted, but he was the bridge between Williams and Cosmi, who has started a run of Longhorn left tackles becoming NFL draft picks, with Trevor Goosby expected to follow Kelvin Banks Jr. as a first-round pick in 2027 (Christian Jones, who was the team’s left tackle in 2021, developed into an NFL draft pick after moving to right tackle when Banks got to campus in 2022).

Anderson persevered after going undrafted in 2019, including continuing his career after overcoming malaria in 2023. Anderson played 59 games over parts of seven seasons with four different franchises, logging 14 starts along the way.

Although he wasn’t on the Forty Acres for an extended stay, Anderson played a pivotal role in reversing the unsavory offensive line trend the program was mired in before he showed up.

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Could Laurence Seymore be to the 2026 offensive line what Anderson was to the 2018 unit?

Like Anderson, Seymore is transferring to Texas from a member of Conference USA (Western Kentucky), a level at which he played well enough to be named a second-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America in 2025. And, like Anderson, Seymore will only be at Texas for one season.

Seymore doesn’t need to be the 1996 version of Dan Neil to be an asset to the Longhorns. If he can follow Anderson’s lead and be a steady, reliable performer, he’ll go a long way toward solidifying a position at left guard that took entirely too long to get settled.