Denver Broncos: Five most underrated offseason moves

4. Retaining offensive tackle Calvin Anderson

It may not seem “underrated” to keep a backup offensive tackle, but in this situation it certainly is. Let me preface this section with this. A couple of years ago, the Broncos plucked Mike Munchak away from the Pittsburgh Steelers to be their new offensive line coach after initially interviewing him for the head coaching vacancy. While it was strange at the time for Munchak to make the horizontal move from Pittsburgh to Denver, Broncos fans have had little to complain about.

Under Munchak, the offensive line unit has performed extremely well and we’ve even had the pleasure of seeing his work pay off in the form of Garret Bolles. Bolles went from being seen as one of the worst offensive tackles in the game to being recognized as one of the top tackles in the league in just a matter of two seasons.

Now we get to the underrated part. Enter Calvin Anderson, an offensive tackle who went undrafted out of the University of Texas and was signed by the Broncos in 2019 from the New York Jets practice squad.

Anderson was kept on the practice squad and eventually was kept on the active roster in 2020, even making starts against the Raiders and Panthers and playing relatively well. He’s an athletic tackle with the ability to play either side of the line. With Ja’Wuan James being cut from the team the decision to keep Anderson looks like a good one, despite the Broncos bringing in two veterans to compete for the job.

Tendering means the team sees something in Anderson and he could potentially compete for the starting right tackle job or even be a swing tackle for the season as he develops. If Munchak can continue to develop Anderson into a quality NFL tackle, this may go down as one of the most underrated moves of the 2021 offseason.