What, exactly, is Washington’s plan for its offensive line?
July 22, 2024
by Steve Thomas
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to be overly negative here. I don’t intend this column to merely be an extensive “Washington’s offensive line stinks” diatribe. While I don’t completely agree with what the team has done with this unit, I actually think they have the beginnings of a long-term strategy in place.
Where are they now?
To start with, it seems reasonable to assume that, barring injury, these players will be Washington’s starters in week one:
LT: Cornelius Lucas
LG: Nick Allegretti
RG: Samuel Cosmi
RT: Andrew Wylie
In looking at this group of probable starters, I see two players who realistically have two years left on their contracts, Nick Allegretti and Tyler Biadasz. Not only were both of these men signed by the current administration, each has significant dead cap money in 2025, particularly Biadasz. In 2025, he has a cap hit of $8.95M and a pre-June 1 dead cap figure of $13.8M, meaning that he’d be very difficult to rid of – albeit not impossible – until 2026. Allegretti’s contract is similar, although not quite as bad: a $4.4M cap hit and $5.9M pre-June 1 dead cap figure in 2025. The point is that Washington’s leadership likely sees those two players as part of the long-term future. Both are actually signed through 2026, but have very high cap hits that season. If both work out as planned, I suspect that they will be offered contract extensions that will reduce their 2026 number.
Lucas is on a one year deal, and Cosmi in in the final year of his rookie contract. Andrew Wylie’s contract is effectively a one year deal with a team option, because his 2025 cap hit is over $10.4M, but with a dead cap figure of just $2.67M pre-June 1. This means that cutting him after the 2024 season would save the team over $7.75M.
The big picture point here is that of the likely starters, only the center, Biadasz, and the probable left guard, Allegretti, are currently tied to this team beyond 2024. And while those two are signed through 2026, the team is really only obligated to them through 2025.
What is the plan?
I suspect that Adam Peters and Dan Quinn view Sam Cosmi’s status this year as being in flux. Cosmi has mostly performed at guard, but is probably in a “prove it” status with this leadership. Washington could have signed him to a contract extension this offseason and chose not to do so for a reason. Leadership most likely wants to see more before anointing him as a part of the future.
Wylie has been a complete disaster in every sense of the word. He would save more than $4M as a post-June 1 cut this offseason if they can stumble on anything approaching a living, breathing human being to step in on the right side. I refuse to believe that the team’s administration is going to count on such a poor performer to remain on the roster at such a high cap number. There’s no way that he’s on anything more than borrowed time in Washington.
Brandon Coleman, of course, was Washington’s third round pick this year. The hopeful in the Washington universe, which seems to include general manager Adam Peters, is that the team found a diamond in the rough who will become the team’s next star left tackle. That might be true – I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on offensive line film; it’s not my strength – but the odds are against that coming to pass from day one. Don’t get me wrong; stranger things have happened, but if Coleman was that kind of player, he’d likely have been drafted in a higher slot. This is certainly not born of objective data, but I get the sense that Quinn and Peters are more trying to will Coleman’s rapid ascendency into existence than they actually believe it to be the truth at this moment. We’ll see.
Of the remaining interior linemen, Chris Paul and Ricky Stromberg are both draft choices, albeit from the prior administration, so they will have some small amount of standing with the team. Paul in particular has shown promise at times, but neither one seems to be currently in the mix for a significant role in the group going forward. They’ll have to earn it.
None of the rest of the lineman on the roster, either in the interior / center group or the tackle group, are likely a big part Washington’s long-term plans. This includes 2023 fourth round pick Braeden Daniels, who spent all of last season on injured reserved. Presumably, the coaching staff will give him an opportunity to compete, but to say that he’s an integral part of team plans doesn’t appear to me to be realistic.
After going through this exercise, what do we have with the current, 2024 incarnation of the offensive line? Basically, a unit in flux. The only two players who are in the team’s plans beyond this year are Biadasz and Allegretti. Clearly, the team hopes they become long-term starters. Sam Cosmi and Brandon Coleman are going to have to earn their places. I, along with many others, was disappointed with the team’s handling of this position group this offseason. It isn’t breaking news for me to say that last season’s offensive line was mostly terrible, so it seemed logical to think that Adam Peters and company would focus on this major team weakness. They did, sort of: Biadasz and Allegretti were free agent signings at the starter level, and Biadasz, in particular, was an above-average acquisition. Beyond that, though, the team wasn’t able to really solve any problems, with the exception of a long-shot at starter in Coleman’s selection.
In other words, 2 of 5 starter slots might be solved, but aren’t necessarily set in stone.
It was a bit surprising that the team made the decisions that they did this offseason given that the team still has more than $36M in cap space and had 4 draft picks ahead of where they took Coleman in round 3. I think they could have done more to either attract a quality talent at tackle at free agency or spend a higher draft pick on a player who would have a better chance of becoming a plus-level starter than Coleman.
Sometimes, that simply can’t happen in one offseason, though, for many reasons. Three of the four draft picks Washington made in rounds 1 and 2 filled team needs. Jer’Zhan Newton was a wasted pick, since didn’t need an interior defensive lineman, they actually have two highly paid, successful defensive tackles. That was a spot which Washington theoretically could have drafted an offensive lineman, but in looking at the draft results, none were close to round 2, pick 4. The next offensive lineman drafted was guard Jackson Powers-Johnson was selected by the Raiders with the 12th pick in round 2. Therefore, it appears as though the consensus NFL opinion was that no offensive lineman was worthy of selection at the spot at which Newton was selected. Not only that, but the lineman who was selected closest to Newton in round 1 was Tyler Guyton by the Dallas Cowboys, who most likely wouldn’t have been overly willing to help Washington solve its tackle problem via trade.
Another option would’ve been University of Houston tackle Patrick Paul, who was selected by the Miami Dolphins with the 23rd pick in round 2, just two spots below where Washington drafted tight end Ben Sinnott.
In the NFL, sometimes problems just can’t be solved in one year. It appears to me that Washington does have a plan going forward, but it’s one that’s going to take at least two, or maybe three, years to fully implement. I can’t explain why they didn’t make more of an effort to bring someone in during free agency except to speculate that they didn’t like the value being offered on the market.
My point here is that, as bad as the offensive line situation appears to be right now, I think Adam Peters is actually following a strategy and wants to acquire the right players. Certainly, given that the team now has a highly-touted rookie quarterback, it would have been better to have the tackle position settled, but is simply didn’t happen. Two positions are likely settled, with one more being a possibility if the team chooses to re-sign Sam Cosmi. I have a feeling that next year’s draft will bring additional lineman to Washington.