It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
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The Commanders offensive line is roughly 60% locked in place with regards to the known starters — maybe a bit more depending on how you read the comments and actions of the GM and coaches.
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What’s locked in on the offensive line?
Three positions, barring any offseason injuries, are locked and loaded:
Left tackle – Laremy Tunsil
Right guard – Sam Cosmi
Right tackle – Josh Conerly
Tunsil is an elite offensive tackle and poised to anchor the offensive line group for several years to come. While Cosmi missed part of last season with an ACL tear suffered during the 2024 postseason game against the Lions, he has played well at right guard since being selected by the Washington Football Team in the 2nd round of the 2021 draft, and he is currently under contract through the 2028 season. Josh Conerly is a 2nd year player who progressed rapidly after a tough start in his rookie year. He struggled in the first half of his rookie season: 6 sacks (most in the NFL), 28 pressures (third most) and a pressure rate of 10 percent (eighth highest). He improved dramatically in the second half of the season — 2 sacks, 15 pressures, and ~5% pressure rate (h/t Rock_em for those stats). Coaches and most fans seem to view that second half as a strong platform for a promising 2026.
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Who starts at center & left guard?
The two question marks come at center and left guard.
Center
By now, I think most Commanders fans are familiar with what happened with last year’s starting center, Tyler Biadasz. Reporting from local and national media indicates that the Commanders were “in on” free agent Tyler Linderbaum until the Raiders inked him to a 3-year, $81m contract that Adam Peters was unwilling to match.
Plan B appears to have been to ride with last year’s backup, Nick Allegretti, a player who has had struggles at the guard position in Washington, but who appears to have the cerebral understanding of the game that is a requirement for centers who have to set protections and blocking schemes from play-to-play.
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Washington, who had a lot of thin spots in the roster heading into the draft, waited until the 6th round to select Matt Gulbin (No. 209 overall). There were 19 true centers taken ahead of him in this year’s draft. The rookie had a good college career, but there are concerns about his scheme fit with the expected outside-zone many observers expect David Blough to implement, as well as the usual concern about a 6th-round rookie being ready to play immediately in the NFL.
There have been previous reports that Julian Good-Jones can play center and that 3rd year guard Brandon Coleman has received some cross-training at the position in practice. While Good-Jones appears to be a long shot to even make the 53-man roster, Coleman started at left tackle in 12 games as a rookie in 2024 before being replaced by Laremy Tunsil last year. He won the camp battle for the starting left guard position to Chris Paul last season, but their roles swapped after Week 2 with Paul starting the rest of the season. Coleman played at least 4 games at left tackle when Tunsil was lost to injury.
Left guard
On the face of it, the battle for the starting left guard position seems to be between the same two players who competed for the job a year ago — Brandon Coleman and Chris Paul. Coleman missed some offseason work due to injury, and coaches pointed to that missed time when asked why Coleman eventually ended up as the backup.
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Chris Paul reached the end of his rookie contract when the 2025 season was over; he entered free agency but simply never got much traction. After a week or so of testing the market, he returned to Washington on a one-year, $3m contract. He will be keen to win the starting role again in hopes of dramatically increasing his market value ahead of the 2027 offseason.
In addition to Coleman, Paul and Julian Good-Jones, there are at least 4 other guards on the roster — Tim McKay, Sala Aumavae-Laulu, Tyler Cooper, and 2026 undrafted college free agent Tonoa Toiai. I don’t know much about the last three players on the list, but I wrote this about Tim McKay in a UDFA spotlight article last year:
McKay’s flexibility showed up throughout a heavy workload during his collegiate career. The 6-foot-4, 312-pounder played 425 snaps at right guard and 441 at tackle in 2023, per Pro Football Focus.
Those numbers made it seem as though McKay was still searching for his best spot. A search that appeared to come to an end in 2024, when he took 726 snaps at right guard and only 40 on the edge. McKay played 1,088 snaps at right guard over the last two seasons and projects to play the position at the NFL level.
Per PFF, during his senior season at NC State in 2024, McKay finished with a 70.5 overall rating, including a 73.1 grade as a pass blocker and 69.8 as a run blocker.
He allowed just 18 total pressures and two sacks in 2024 after not allowing a sack during the 2023 campaign.
Unfortunate injury
Unfortunately for McKay, he tore a pectoral muscle while doing the bench press at his pro day ahead of the draft.
In the end, the status of his pec injury will determine how quickly McKay gets to make a good impression, but the Commanders paid him as if they expect him to make the roster.
Read the full article here
