Brandon Coleman impresses in first full start

Breaking down the rookie left tackles performance in his first full game.

Rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman played his first full game for the Commanders on Sunday. Coleman missed time during preseason due to injury, so the Commanders started the year with him rotating in and out with veteran Cornelius Lucas. Coleman’s snaps steadily increased until he suffered a concussion that caused him to miss the win over the Bears. He returned for the Giants game this week, which was fortunate as Lucas missed the game injured, leading to Coleman starting and playing the entire game for the first time in his NFL career. 

It was no easy task for Coleman either. The Commanders faced the Giants, who boast one of the best pass rushing defenses in the league. Coleman had some struggles against the Giants back in Week 2, particularly against Kayvon Thibodeaux. Thibodeax is on injured reserve so missed the game, but the Giants lined up star pass rusher Brian Burns against Coleman for the vast majority of the game. Officially, Coleman gave up zero sacks and zero quarterback pressures, so on the face of it he did well. But stats can be misleading sometimes, so let’s dive into the All-22 to see how he actually fared. 

First it’s important context to say that the Commanders had a gameplan to help Coleman on the edge. They’ve done this all year on both sides of the line to help out whichever player is playing tackle and it’s been extremely effective in helping the offensive line protect rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. Help for Coleman came in multiple forms. 

In this clip we can see a few examples of how the Commanders looked to help Coleman out in pass protection against Brian Burns. On the first play of the clip, The Commanders use receiver Noah Brown to help chip Burns on the edge, while also using a play-action fake inside. Both left guard Nick Allegretti and tight end Ben Sinnott pull to the right side of the line, trying to give Burns a strong run key to read. Brown then initiates contact on the chip, forcing Burns inside to Coleman and protecting the edge. 

With that kind of help, Coleman is able to get his hands on Burns and stop his initial rush. With Burns so confused by all the misdirection from the play-action and then the chip, it takes him a moment to understand exactly what’s going on. By that point, Coleman has his hands on him and shoves him backwards. Burns looks to re-engage in the block, but by then Daniels has already got rid of the ball. 

On the second play of the clip, running back Jeremy McNichols aligns to Coleman’s side of the field and chips Burns before releasing into his route. The Commanders again use some misdirection in the backfield with Austin Ekeler motioning from the slot to the backfield just before the snap, but that’s all to try and distract the defense and slow them down. Burns is a little quicker to read pass this time without a strong play-action fake, so he starts to rush a little more directly up the field. However, McNichols meets him on the edge with a strong chip to force him inside towards Coleman. Coleman gets a little sloppy with his hands and nearly loses control of the block, but does enough to keep Burns in front of him with the help of the play design and the chip from McNichols. 

The third play of the clip is another chip example, this time with receiver Luke McCaffrey. He takes a position not too dissimilar to a tight end and is aggressive with his chip, ensuring Burns can’t rush straight up the field. Coleman only has to land a punch or two on Burns after that chip and the ball is thrown to the end zone for a touchdown. 

I’m showing these clips not to say Coleman was bad, far from it. But it’s important to contextualize his performance. The Commanders did a great job helping out their young left tackle throughout the game, as they have done all season really. They’ve used a variety of different chippers from backs to tight ends to receivers. They’ve used a lot of misdirection and play-action and they’ve varied the tempo a lot to help keep those edge rushers from focusing purely on rushing. It’s smart coaching from Washington and it helps limit Coleman’s exposure to a premier pass rusher like Burns.

That being said, there were still times where Coleman had to face Burns without help. So how did he do there? Let’s start with the positives. I wrote after the Bengals game that Coleman has developed a nice hand flash technique to help him against good edge rushers. He used it a few times against Trey Hendrickson with good results. 

This technique sees Coleman extend his outside hand towards the rusher early in the rep, faking that he’s looking to engage early. This is just bait to try and get the rusher to adjust and engage in the block before they are ready to. By flashing the hand at the rusher, the defender instinctively moves to try and knock the hand down. Coleman then suddenly pulls his hand away, leaving the defender to swipe at air. This exposes the defenders chest, where Coleman can then place his hand and gain control of the block and in some cases, it can also lead to the defender losing balance as they were ready to lean into contact that wasn’t there. 

This clip shows two examples of Coleman’s hand flash technique against Burns. On the first play, Coleman’s hand flash baits Burns into trying to swipe his outside hand before dipping around the edge. However, as he looks to swipe with his outside hand, Coleman pulls his hands away and Burns swipes at the air. This leaves his chest exposed which Coleman quickly takes advantage of by landing a punch and gaining control of the block. Burns attempts to break free, but Coleman quickly follows up his outside hand punch by placing his inside hand on Burns as well, gaining complete control of the block and stopping him entirely. 

On the second play of the clip, Burns is baited into the same type of rush. This time Burns doesn’t attempt the hand swipe but does still look to dip and bend the edge with his chest exposed. The speed is a problem for Coleman, who struggles to stay with Burns, but by landing his outside hand on the exposed chest of the rusher, Coleman is able to hook Burns and slow him down. Many people might consider this a hold as Coleman’s arm appears to be wrapped around Burns’ neck, but it’s actually on Burns to clear that hand and prevent himself from getting hooked like that. 

When Coleman wasn’t using hand flashes, he wasn’t quite as effective, but he battled hard.