Commanders turn to Brandon Coleman at LT after Laremy Tunsil injury

The Washington Commanders were dealt a huge blow on Saturday when star left tackle Laremy Tunsil suffered a torn triceps during practice. At the time of writing, it’s unclear exactly how long Tunsil will be out for, but it’s expected he’ll miss the majority of the season, if not all of it. Head coach Dan Quinn should give an update regarding Tunsil’s injury as the Commanders return to practice on Monday.

It’s a massive loss for the Commanders. Tunsil is legitimately one of the top three left tackles in the NFL, if not the outright top left tackle. He’s such a consistently strong pass protector and his run blocking was better than given credit for too. Losing your star left tackle a few weeks into training camp is tough to deal with but the Commanders will now have to come up with a plan of replacing him.

The Commanders could look to the free agent market to find a veteran left tackle, but they do have a few internal options to replace Tunsil too. Veteran Andrew Wylie could step in having played all five spots across the line, but he’s more suited to a back up role at this point in his career. Josh Conerly Jr. played left tackle in college before transitioning to right tackle when the Commanders drafted him. Washington could opt to flip him back to his college spot, but I feel that would undo so much of the work that he’s done to develop at right tackle, which is where he would have to play again once Tunsil returns from his injury. That would then result in the Commanders having to find an option to play right tackle, disrupting two positions instead of just one.

For me, the best option is Brandon Coleman. Coleman was drafted in the third round back in 2024 and started most of his rookie season at left tackle. He played relatively well considering he was a third round rookie playing one of the toughest positions in the spot, but the Commanders made the move for Tunsil last year and shifted Coleman inside to left guard, where he ultimately lost his place to Chris Paul. He’s currently in a camp battle with Paul for the starting left guard spot, so in my opinion the best option that would cause the least amount of disruption and have the best upside is moving Coleman back outside to left tackle, allowing Paul to stick at left guard and Conerly to stay developing at right tackle.

It appears as though that’s the way the Commanders are going to go. Many beat reporters have stated the Commanders currently are planning to go with Coleman as Tunsil’s replacement, though a veteran free agent being brought in to compete with him hasn’t been ruled out. So how will Coleman manage this situation and what impact will it have on the Commanders offense? Well, it’s easy to forget that Coleman actually filled in for Tunsil a few times down the stretch last year and held up relatively well.

In the run game, I think Coleman will be absolutely fine. He showed he was a strong run blocker when he started at left tackle in 2024 and even when he struggled at guard last year, he was still good in the run game. The Commanders are expected to become more of an outside zone run team this year and Coleman has the athleticism to play that scheme to a high level.

This play comes from Coleman’s rookie year in 2024. The Commanders are running a sweep scheme to their right, pulling the right guard and center to the edge on a perimeter run. For Coleman at left tackle though, it’s basically the same as blocking a wide zone run to the right side. His job is to use his athleticism to climb up to the second level and block the linebacker to his side.

At the snap of the ball, Coleman gets his angle perfect. He takes a drop stop with his right foot and then crosses over with his left foot, which sets his angle on the correct path. He then uses his athleticism while following that path to work up to the second level and reach the linebacker. In an ideal world, Coleman is able to get to the spot first and seal the linebacker on the back side of the run, but because it’s a sweep scheme and there are two lineman pulling to the edge, the linebacker gets a clean read and attacks the run aggressively. So Coleman has to settle for the next best option. He gets up to the second level and initiates contact, shoving the linebacker off balance with a strong punch as he gets thrown into another lineman.

This takes the linebacker out of the play and opens up a huge cutback lane behind Coleman. Running back Chris Rodriguez spots the lane and makes the cut to take it. After the initial strong shove, Coleman continues to wash the linebacker down the line and completely out of the play. This gives Rodriguez all the room he needs to burst up into the secondary on his way to a big gain and nearly a touchdown.

But it wasn’t just in 2024 that Coleman was a good run blocker. When he filled in for Tunsil last season, he did a nice job in the run game too.

This time we see an actual wide zone run to the right. Coleman is at left tackle with Chris Paul playing left guard. On the back side of a zone run like this, typically the guard and tackle combine to block the defensive tackle before one of them peels off to block the linebacker on the second level. Normally the guard will just land a quick punch to stop the defensive lineman running through and give the left tackle a bit of extra time to reach the block. Once the left tackle picks up the defensive lineman, the guard will then climb up to second level and pick up the linebacker.

However, on this occasion, Paul engages with the defensive lineman more intently. Meanwhile, Coleman spots the linebacker looking to sprint through the gap between Paul and the center. With Paul staying engaged on the defensive lineman, Coleman doesn’t think Paul will be able to reach the linebacker, so instead he freelances a bit. He leaves Paul on the defensive lineman and overlaps him to emerge in the vacant gap and pick up the linebacker. It’s not necessarily a pretty block, but it was an important one and it gave the running back a chance to make a cut behind the linebacker instead of just getting tackled in the backfield for a loss.

It was another example of the athleticism that Coleman has for the zone run scheme. To further emphasize that point, let’s see one more clip from last year.

Now I want you to ignore everything else going on in this clip because it’s not a great run for Washington. The Commanders call a sweep scheme to their right, which again for Coleman on the back side of the run, it plays a lot like a wide zone scheme. Ignoring everything else that goes wrong for the Commanders here, just focus on Coleman. Note that he starts the play about two or three yards outside the left hashmark. He then sprints across the field and works up to the second level to block the deep safety at the numbers on the far side of the field.

Not only does he cover an incredible amount of ground, he makes a great block too. A lot of lineman struggle to make blocks in space because linebackers and defensive backs are more agile than them and can avoid the block, but Coleman uses his momentum and runs over the safety, bulldozing him to the ground. It shows off incredibly range and athleticism in the run game, which should be a strength for Coleman even as the starting left tackle.

So I think Coleman will be just fine in the run game as Tunsil’s replacement. But Coleman’s issues as a rookie left tackle weren’t in the run game. HIs pass protection was inconsistent, often flashing some nice moves but frequently mixed in some poor reps too. Let’s start with the positives first. In 2024, he took on a variety of good pass rushers and had some nice reps against all of them. He was particularly efficient with a hand flash technique that got the better of both Brian Burns and Trey Hendrickson, two of the better pass rushers in the NFL.