Without Laremy Tunsil and Sam Cosmi, the Commanders' rebuilt offensive line has surrendered only three sacks. Next up: DeForest Buckner and the Colts in London. | Philip Hughes | HTTR4LIFE LLC
The Washington Commanders
entered this season with legitimate concerns about their offensive line. Laremy Tunsil's triceps injury forced them
to shift Brandon Coleman
over to left tackle, which in turn forced them to start Chris Paul
at left guard. The team had already planned to move guard Nick Allegretti
to center, but then he had lingering calf issues
that kept him out for most of camp. Couple that with the fact that Josh Conerly Jr.
entered year two at right tackle after a rough first year, where his best takeaway was the fact that he played every down with 43 pressures allowed and 13 penalties.
Through three games, those fears haven't translated into major issues; after 98 passes between Commanders quarterbacks Jayden Daniels
and Marcus Mariota
, the line has given up three sacks. Two of them were on Mariota this past weekend against Seattle, when he also threw three touchdown passes and was named FedEx Air and Ground Player of the Week
. That total is tied with Dallas
and Seattle for the second-fewest in the league, behind the 49ers' zero.
One of the clearest reasons for the change has been Conerly, who has stepped up big time. I talked about him in
this piece
yesterday
and
broke down his Pro Football Focus grades
compared with year one and how he got there. But Conerly has yet to surrender a sack or a quarterback hit heading into Week 4. Commanders head coach Dan Quinn saw this coming: "I wasn't surprised. It's kinda when some of the guys make the biggest jumps because Josh is still young... And then he did it again this summer," Quinn said. "He added, like, four more pounds of just lean strength."
That offensive line play had been powered by the bull-like strength and determination of Sam Cosmi
, who has already been ruled out of his second straight game
with a concussion and throat injuries after taking a friendly-fire hit in the Dallas game from Kaytron Allen
. Cosmi's absence means the offensive line will have to shift yet again. To add insult to injury, Allegretti, who shifted to right guard last week, is now dealing with a hip injury and was limited in Wednesday's walkthrough.
There's no rest for the weary this weekend in London, as Indianapolis
has seven defensive sacks through three games and is led by DeForest Buckner, who has three sacks
along with 11 pressures so far (seventh among interior defensive linemen), along with Adetomiwa Adebawore
, who has 1.5 sacks.
Three games into a season is a super small sample to gauge from, but the feared collapse in offensive line protection has yet to happen. While Washington
certainly needs to clean up its pass protection, the unit has done well since Tunsil went down, but hasn't been perfect. The Colts will give the staff yet another chance to find out whether that early success is sustainable.
Washington entered the season wondering whether its rebuilt offensive line could hold together. Three games later, the more interesting question is how long it can keep doing it while pieces keep disappearing.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/commanders/onsi as Washington's Offensive Line Has Quietly Defied Its Biggest Concern - Commanders Daily .
