Spencer
Burford.
Spencer
Burford.
Texas-San Antonio· 6'4"· 304 lb· 5.19s 40
"A four-year UTSA starter with tackle length and guard-sized power questions, whose entire NFL value depended on landing in a zone-running scheme that would let him move instead of anchor."Pre-draft read
Burford is a long, light-footed blocker who plays like a converted tackle because that is what he is. He fires out of his stance with good quickness, reaches defenders on outside zone and has the range to climb and cut off a linebacker in space. The arms are nearly 35 inches, and he uses them to steer rushers past the pocket rather than to stop them cold.
The anchor is the problem. He plays with a high pad level and narrow base, and heavy interior rushers walk him backward once they get into his chest. He is at his best moving, whether pulling, climbing or working a combination block, and least comfortable in a phone booth on a straight bull rush. The finishing temperament flashes but is not constant, and technique drifts when he tires.
An outside zone and wide zone running game that asks guards to reach, pull and climb rather than to displace defenders at the point of attack.
Year 1: a rookie starter at guard in a movement scheme. Ceiling: a decade-long starting guard who is the best second-level blocker on the line.
A gap-and-power downhill offense that asks the guard to move a nose tackle off the ball on third-and-one, where his narrow base and pad level get exposed every snap.
The San Francisco landing spot was as close to the ideal fit as this class produced for him.
Spencer Burford OT UTSA Highlights
College reel from his left tackle years showing the reach blocks and second-level climbs.
49ers drafted OL Spencer Burford | UTSA Highlights
Post-draft cut-up of the UTSA tape San Francisco bought, heavy on zone-run reps.
UTSA Spencer Burford NFL Draft Breakdown
Pre-draft breakdown covering the length, the anchor concerns and the projection inside to guard.
Burford was UTSA's first four-star signee and then the foundation of the program's best team. He started 43 games across four seasons and took snaps at four of the five line positions, finishing as a first-team All-Conference USA left tackle on a squad that went 12-2 and won the league title.
The measurables were the selling point. He is 6-foot-4 with nearly 35-inch arms and a 6-foot-10 wingspan, ran 5.19 at the combine and put up 25 bench reps, which is the athletic profile of a movement-scheme guard who can be asked to pull and reach. Pro Football Focus charted him for two sacks allowed in 420 pass-blocking snaps as a senior, and the tape backed the number up against Conference USA edge rushers.
The concerns were about where he would play and what would happen when he moved inside. His length looked like a tackle's and his anchor looked like nobody's — too upright, too narrow, too easy to bull. Scouts broadly agreed the answer was guard in a zone-running offense, which pointed straight at San Francisco, a team that had built an entire scheme around exactly that kind of body.
- 01
Movement skills
reaches defenders on outside zone, pulls comfortably and climbs to the second level with the body control to actually block linebackers in space.
- 02
Positional versatility
started at four of the five offensive line spots at UTSA, from right guard as a freshman to left tackle as a senior, without a drop in production.
- 03
Length
34 3/4-inch arms and a 6-foot-10 wingspan let him land first and steer edge rushers wide of the pocket even when he loses the initial footrace.
- 04
Pass protection production
allowed two sacks and one quarterback hit on 420 pass-blocking snaps as a senior, per Pro Football Focus, on a 12-2 conference champion.
- 05
Durable four-year starter
43 career starts beginning as a true freshman, with no missed seasons and a consistent role through three different coaching staff priorities.
- 01
Anchor
plays too upright with a narrow base, and powerful interior rushers can collapse him into the pocket once they get their hands inside his frame.
- 02
Play strength at the point
struggles to generate displacement in short yardage, functioning more as a screen than a mover against heavy nose tackles.
- 03
Technique under fatigue
the hand placement and pad level drift late in games, turning clean reps into holds or quick losses against better competition.
- 04
Level of competition
Conference USA edge rushers rarely tested the anchor the way NFL three-techniques would, leaving the biggest question mark ungraded on tape.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.19sp50
- Vertical
- 27.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 105inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- 4.73sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | UTSA | 10 |
| 2019 | UTSA | 12 |
| 2020 | UTSA | 11 |
| 2021 | UTSA | — |
| Career | — | 33 |
Offensive line participation is not published by cfbstats, so the games and starts come from the official UTSA biography on goutsa.com: 10 starts in 10 games as a true freshman in 2018, 11 starts in all 12 games in 2019, 10 starts in 11 games in 2020, and 12 starts in 2021 (11 at left tackle). UTSA's bio does not state how many games he appeared in as a senior, so that figure and the career games total are left unverified rather than estimated. The starts sum exactly to the career total of 43. Offensive linemen accumulate no statistical categories, so no counting stats are shown.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Versatile interior lineman who starts, loses the job, then keeps finding work as a scheme-specific option.
Zone-scheme guard who develops into a multi-year starter and earns a second contract in free agency.
Long developmental lineman who spends most of his career as a swing piece rather than a fixed starter.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
San Francisco moved him inside immediately and he started all 16 games he played as a rookie at right guard, plus all three playoff games. That is a fourth-round pick paying off in year one. The production was uneven — he was one of the more frequently beaten guards in the league by pressure rate — but the 49ers kept him in the lineup, and he started 13 more games in 2023 on the way to Super Bowl LVIII.
Then the job went away. He appeared in 15 games in 2024 without a single start before landing on injured reserve, reclaimed nine starts at left guard in 2025 while allowing just two sacks in more than 250 snaps, and hit free agency in March 2026, signing a one-year, $3.255 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders that included $2.745 million guaranteed. He opened 2026 as the Raiders' starter. Fifty-eight games, 40 starts and roughly $8.9 million in career earnings from pick 134: not a star, but a genuine starting-caliber lineman for a decade-long scheme fit, which is more than most fourth-round guards return.