OTF Premium Melvin Siani: Texas' 'tough-ass run blocker who is a good pass protector'

[Jeff Howe]

AUSTIN, Texas — It’s one thing for Texas to enter the transfer portal and land a plug-and-play offensive tackle like Melvin Siani.

The arrival of the Wake Forest transfer, who flashed legitimate NFL potential as the Demon Deacons’ left tackle in 2025, strengthened the Longhorns' offensive line by allowing the staff to move Brandon Baker inside from right tackle to right guard.

It’s quite another, however, for Siani to surpass internal expectations before playing a game in burnt orange.

“Honestly, I'll be quite frank with everybody — I thought I was getting a pass protector when we recruited him,” Steve Sarkisian said after the Longhorns’ Monday morning camp practice. “I'm getting a tough-ass run blocker who is a good pass protector. That's encouraging for us because, clearly, we know how important the run game is going to be for us.”

Sarkisian was right to believe in Siani’s ability to protect the quarterback. According to Pro Football Focus, the 6-foot-6-inch, 317-pound Siani allowed only nine pressures on 456 opportunities in 2025.

Siani’s PFF grade of 67 as a run blocker (PFF considers a grade of 70 above average) wouldn’t indicate he dominated Wake Forest’s competition in the ACC (although the Demon Deacons were most successful running the ball over the left side of the line). Still, Siani’s grade on 372 run-blocking snaps would’ve been the fourth-best grade among Texas offensive linemen last season, trailing only Trevor Goosby (82.1), DJ Campbell (73.6) and Cole Hutson (71.6).

Siani graded slightly higher as a zone blocker (68.4) than on gap runs (64.3). With Siani’s athletic ability and Baker's move to guard, the revamped right side of the Longhorn offensive line has the tools to help Sarkisian establish a ground attack with a zone-based foundation.

Nevertheless, that might be the tip of the iceberg for the Texas running game considering Siani has barely scratched the surface of his potential.

Siani played one season of high school football in Canada before attending Wyoming Seminary, a college preparatory school in Pennsylvania. After preserving a season of eligibility after playing in just four games as a true freshman at Temple in 2023, Siani opened the 2024 season as the starting right tackle for the Owls, making nine starts in 11 games and playing 600 snaps.

Siani has shown enough growth to be on the radar as a prospect for the 2027 NFL Draft. Mike Renner of CBS Sports has Siani ranked as the No. 10 offensive tackle prospect for next spring’s draft with a late-third-round grade (Siani is listed on the Texas roster as a senior, but he has two seasons of eligibility remaining).

Where Renner (and, presumably, NFL coaches, scouts and executives) wants to see Siani improve is where Sarkisian has seen notable growth in the seven months that Siani has been a member of the program.

“Where I need to see Siani improve is in his play strength and balance,” Renner said. “Often, those problems go hand in hand, as the latter compensates for the former. He gets overaggressive trying to make first contact and ends up on the turf. He'll have two years to fix that problem against SEC competition if he wants to.”

And Texas might be the perfect place for Siani to continue his upward trend.

Along with Goosby’s return tempering expectations for Siani as a portal addition at one of the most important positions on the field and the aforementioned factors working in his favor (like playing next to Baker, who has a full season of SEC trench battles under his belt), Siani is in an offense that’s similar to the one he played in at Wake Forest under offensive coordinator Rob Ezell.

Ezell was a graduate assistant at Alabama while Sarkisian was an analyst for Nick Saban in 2016 and was an analyst for the Crimson Tide when Sarkisian returned to Tuscaloosa as Saban’s offensive coordinator in 2019 and 2020 (Kyle Flood followed Sarkisian from the Atlanta Falcons to be Alabama’s offensive line coach and then to Austin). Siani's experience in Ezell's offense paid off when he started learning the Longhorns' offense in the spring.

“Some of the plays literally have the same name because it’s all that Nick Saban tree,” Siani said in an interview with "3rd and Longhorn" earlier this month. “There’s a lot of similarities in the offense that just made that transition even easier and more seamless. I wasn’t complaining at all.”

The only complaints coming from Siani's side of the line of scrimmage will likely be the opposing defenders reacting to being on the receiving end of the physical play of Texas' budding star.

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[Jeff Howe]

Here's the Melvin Siani interview with @Rod Babers and the "3rd and Longhorn" crew:

 

[Jeff Howe]

It's crazy how good the ACC portal guys were to Texas in the recent cycle: Siani (Wake Forest), Sterling Berkhalter (Wake Forest), Rasheem Biles (Pitt), Hollywood Smothers (NC State), Justin Cryer (Florida State) and Mac Chiumento (Florida State) all came from ACC programs (the same with Emmett Mosley last season, transferring in from Stanford).

[Jeff Howe]

FWIW, the NFL draft article I referenced has Trevor Goosby rated as the No. 1 tackle for the 2027 draft.

[kren]

Looks like we got a great person along with player. His 3rd and Longhorn interview has been my favorite of the ones they've done recently, I love his personality

Edited 25 minutes ago by kren

[Joe Zura]

Great stuff Jeff very very very encouraged with the OL this year 🤘

[SuperDave0805]

Tired of hearing how tough and physical the line is going to be, Now I want to actually see it