Analysing Saahdiq Charles' performance against the Eagles
Taking a closer look at how Charles fared at left guard against the Eagles.
Saahdiq Charles has finally gotten a solid run of games as a starter in Washington after missing the majority of his rookie year due to injury and being buried on the depth chart earlier this season. He started at right guard the past two weeks with Brandon Scherff on the Covid list, and had a solid performance last week against Dallas. This week, he shifted to left guard as Scherff returned and Ereck Flowers went on the Covid list. Despite shifting sides, he put in another decent performance, but also showed some patterns that need to be worked on.
One of the worries for an offensive lineman that played tackle in college and transitions to guard in the NFL is their ability to anchor against stronger defenders. Tackles typically face smaller, more agile pass rushers looking to win with speed around the corner, while guards have to deal with bigger defensive tackles that use more power and strength. These two plays show that Charles is capable of handling the extra size and power he’ll face while playing at guard. On both of these plays, the defensive tackles try to get into Charles’ pads and drive him backwards on bullrushes, but on both occasions, Charles manages to withstand the power, drop anchor and force the momentum of the tackle up or to the side to slow and stall the rush.
On the second play of the clip, Fletcher Cox eventually gets away from Charles and pressures Taylor Heinicke, but that came late in the play, well beyond the time the protection was designed to hold up for. Charles executed his block well on the play, dropping anchor and forcing Cox upwards to stop his rush. It’s only when Heinicke has nowhere to throw, hesitates and then starts to scramble that Cox breaks free, at which point the ball should have been thrown anyway.
While Charles has the strength and anchor ability to handle the bigger rushers inside, he does need to work on his hands. Hand fighting becomes more important at guard because rushers have less space to work with, so they have to be more efficient with their hands to win battles inside. Charles is ok with his hands, but the Eagles found an area to attack him.
On this play, Charles works against Eagles star defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. Off the snap, you’ll see Charles have his hands low, but in a ready position to react, rather than by his side, which is good. However, he holds both hands very close together. On this particular play, that works out for him because Cox works a particular type of move and Charles is able to strike with both hands and land them both on Cox’s chest. From that point, Charles is able to gain control of the block and fight with Cox for hand positioning to maintain leverage, rather than having Cox skip by him. Charles does a solid job on this play, though Cox was just about breaking through as Heinicke checked the ball down to Jaret Patterson.
However, the Eagles clearly noticed how close Charles keeps his hands together. For a reference, re-watch that play and focus on right guard Brandon Scherff. Scherff has his hands at about the same height, not high but not too low and by his side either. He also has them in a ready position, however, he keeps them separate from each other. This allows him to strike with one hand and keep the other ready as back up. That way, if the defender is able to knock down his first hand, the second is there to replace it. With Charles having both hands so close together, if a defender uses a swipe to clear one hand, he’ll likely hit both.
Here, the defender spots Charles’ hands go close together and looks to use a cross chop with his left arm followed by a side swipe with his right. Now, neither move fully connects, but both have an impact. Charles’ hands get separated by the moves and he’s able to place them on the defender. This allows the defender to get hip level with him as he works to the edge and Charles then loses his technique, lunging at the defender to try and cut him off. The defender breaks through but Heinicke manages to scramble away.
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