Spencer
Anderson.
Spencer
Anderson.
Maryland· 6'5"· 305 lb· 5.18s 40
"Anderson started at four different positions on the Maryland offensive line, and that single sentence is the entire reason a seventh-round pick has spent four years on an NFL roster."Pre-draft read
Anderson is a technician who survives on placement and intelligence. His hands land accurately, he understands protection calls well enough to have played center in a Big Ten game week, and his initial quickness lets him reach and climb in a zone run scheme. Everything about how he plays is about arriving in the right spot rather than winning with force.
The power deficit is real. His core strength is inconsistent, and a genuine NFL bull rusher can walk him back into the pocket when he catches instead of striking first. His lower-body explosion is average, so he does not displace defensive tackles in the run game. He is a competent body at five positions rather than a good one at any single spot, and that is both the value and the limitation.
Zone-based run scheme that values movement and intelligence over raw displacement and carries a true swing interior lineman
Year 1: swing backup at all three interior spots; ceiling: spot starter at guard with center emergency value
Power gap scheme that asks its guards to blow defensive tackles off the ball on down blocks
Pittsburgh has used him precisely as the sixth or seventh lineman who can start anywhere for a stretch.
Spencer Anderson Is The (Not So) Hidden Element Of Pittsburgh's Run Game
All-22 breakdown of Anderson's run blocking and positional flexibility in Pittsburgh's scheme.
Offensive linemen do not have statistics, so the résumé is games and assignments: 33 appearances and 32 starts at Maryland across five years, with starting experience at left tackle in 2020, right tackle in 2019 and 2021, center in 2021 and right guard in 2022. Almost nobody in the class had that range on tape.
The recognition followed. Honorable mention All-Big Ten in both 2021 and 2022, repeated Academic All-Big Ten honors, and an East-West Shrine Bowl invitation that let scouts see him against draftable competition.
The testing was fine and the projection was not. He measured 6-5 and just over 300 pounds with 32 and an eighth inch arms, ran 5.18, put up 29 bench reps and produced an unofficial 8.62 Relative Athletic Score built on agility rather than power. Boards had him seventh round to priority free agent because of the anchor questions, and Pittsburgh spent the 251st pick on the only thing that actually matters for a lineman at that price: how many jerseys he can wear on game day.
- 01
Genuine five-position flexibility
Started at left tackle, right tackle, center and right guard in college, which is the rarest trait on a Day 3 line prospect.
- 02
High football intelligence
Handled center duties and protection calls in a Big Ten offense, so mental processing is never the issue.
- 03
Accurate hand placement
Lands his strikes inside the frame and refits well, letting technique cover for a lack of raw power.
- 04
Durable production
Thirty-two starts across five seasons at Maryland with no significant availability concerns.
- 05
Adequate movement skills
A 5.18 forty and an 8.62 unofficial RAS built on agility make him functional climbing to the second level in zone.
- 01
Inconsistent anchor
Powerful bull rushers walk him back into the pocket when he catches rather than strikes first.
- 02
Average core strength
He absorbs contact instead of resetting it, which limits him to a backup role against starting NFL interior rushers.
- 03
Limited lower-body explosion
He does not displace defensive tackles at the point of attack in a gap-based run game.
- 04
Jack of all trades profile
Competent everywhere and dominant nowhere, so no single position ever claimed him as a clear starter.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.18sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 29repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Maryland | — |
| 2020 | Maryland | — |
| 2021 | Maryland | — |
| 2022 | Maryland | — |
| Career | — | 33 |
Offensive linemen do not accumulate meaningful counting statistics; games and starts are listed instead. Anderson appeared in 33 games with 32 starts at Maryland from 2018 through 2022, with starting experience at left tackle, right tackle, center and right guard. Per-season start splits are not fully verifiable and are not estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Honorable mention All-Big Ten (2021, 2022)
- Academic All-Big Ten selection
- 2023 East-West Shrine Bowl participant
- 32 career starts at four different offensive line positions
Backup interior lineman whose value is the ability to cover three spots on game day.
Technique-and-intelligence interior lineman who grows into a long-term starter at center.
Versatile but never strong enough to hold up when the starting reps arrive.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Anderson signed a four-year rookie contract on May 12, 2023 and played eight games as a rookie without a start. He appeared in all 17 games in 2024 with four starts, then played all 17 games in 2025 with seven starts as Pittsburgh's primary interior backup. He remained on the Steelers roster to open 2026, the final year of his rookie deal, as the team's swing guard and emergency center.
The versatility became the career. Anderson played eight games as a rookie in 2023 without starting, then appeared in all 17 games in 2024 with four starts as the Steelers cycled through injuries along the line. In 2025 he played every game again and started seven, which is a genuine contribution from a player taken with the eighth-to-last pick of his draft.
He entered 2026 as Pittsburgh's primary swing interior lineman and made the roster again, still in the same building four years later on the final year of his rookie contract. Nobody has ever mistaken him for a long-term starter, and the bull-rush concerns from the draft process still show up when he is asked to hold up alone. But an offensive line needs one player who can take reps at guard, center and tackle in the same week without the operation falling apart, and Pittsburgh found that player at pick 251. That is the entire job, and he has done it.