90 Buffalo Bills players in 90 days: Tackle Alec Anderson

The Buffalo Bills love to amass plenty of offensive line depth. While general manager Brandon Beane is notorious for signing veterans only to flip them for late-round draft choices in August, he also does a great job scouring the ranks of the undrafted. That’s where he found guard Ike Boettger, and he also had no problem dealing a veteran to the Philadelphia Eagles for undrafted rookie Ryan Bates.

While these undrafted players may not immediately step into roles with the team, the team trusts its coaches to develop players effectively, meaning that those rookies may eventually become quality backups—or, in the case of Bates, they may even earn starting gigs in the future.

In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss a rookie tackle whose personality is nearly as big as he is.

Name: Alec Anderson

Number: 70

Position: T

Height/Weight: 6’5” 305 lbs

Age: 22 (birthdate unknown)

Experience/Draft: R; signed with Buffalo following the 2022 NFL Draft

College: UCLA

Acquired: UDFA signing

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Anderson signed a standard UDFA contract in terms of the length, as it runs for three years. He seems to have signed for a bit more than some, as the total value of the contract is $2.578 million. The contract includes an $18,000 signing bonus.

2021 Recap: Anderson started all ten games he appeared in last year, and the Bruins averaged over 200 yards rushing for the third straight season. While he has appeared at guard during points in his career, he seems to have played right tackle exclusively in 2020 and 2021. Anderson missed two games, but a reason for that absence was not provided at the time by coach Chip Kelly.

Positional outlook: Anderson is one of eight players listed either as a tackle or a guard/tackle. He joins presumed starters Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown, along with Tommy Doyle, Cody Ford, David Quessenberry, Luke Tenuta, and Bobby Hart.

2022 Offseason: Anderson is healthy and he has participated in OTAs. He also threw his brother through a table when he found out that he was coming to Buffalo, so he should fit right in here.

2022 Season outlook: Barring something wild, Anderson won’t make the final roster this year. However, he definitely shows some promise for the future, as I’d rather see the team take a chance on developing a fun, young player over keeping a known turnstile like Hart around on the practice squad. Anderson seems like a huge dude with an equally huge personality. By NFL standards, he’s not a great athlete (his 21 bench press reps, 5.03-second 20-yard shuttle, and 24” vertical at his pro day would have all been towards the bottom part of linemen at the NFL Scouting Combine), but he has enough length (33.25” arms) to warrant watching at tackle, and his past experience at guard gives him a shot to stick on the practice squad as a hybrid player that the Bills covet so much along the offensive front. While he may end up the third-string offensive tackle throughout camp, he could be a player the team looks to sign to the practice squad at the beginning of September. Fun fact: he’s the nephew of assistant special teams coach Cory Harkey.