Brandon Colman shows promise against Bengals

Breaking down the Commanders rookie left tackle after a solid outing against the Bengals

Rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman has been eased into action early in his NFL career. Coleman missed a lot of time in preseason due to injury, failing to appear in any of the three preseason games. As a result, the Commanders have taken a slow approach to ramping him up during the season. Through the first three games, Coleman has rotated with veteran Cornelius Lucas at left tackle. In the first game, Coleman played one series in each half. In the second game, that ramped up to a couple of series. Against the Bengals on Monday night, Coleman rotated in every other series, splitting the snap count almost exactly even with Lucas. 

It’s not a very conventional way of doing things with an offensive lineman. Typically you want your offensive line to all stay on the field together to build as much cohesion as possible, which is why it’s rare to see rotation at a certain spot. But in this unique case, it’s allowing Coleman to ramp up slowly to ensure his body holds up after his injury in preseason, while also exposing him to real game situations he’ll face at the left tackle situation. Coleman had some struggles last week against the Giants, who have two excellent edge rushers in Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns. This week, he faced off against Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, who is coming off a career year last season with 17.5 sacks. 

My biggest concern with Coleman after the draft was his tendency to rely on two-handed punches. Coleman is strong and when he lands those two-handed punches, they have a big impact. He can really stun defenders and knock them off their initial rush plan, which makes it an effective move. However, in the NFL, shooting both hands at the same time can cause issues. Coleman tends to throw both hands without following up with his feet, resulting in him lunging at rushers. 

Here we see a good example of Coleman lunging slightly at Hendrickson. He feels Hendrickson approaching and looks to land his strong two-handed punch, firing both hands at the same time. On this occasion, he manages to land both hands, which stuns Hendrickson’s rush. However, you can also see the traits that lead this to be a worrying technique. If you pause the clip as Coleman lands his punch, you can see his arms are fully extended, his shoulders and head are leaning forward and his center of gravity is pulled forward from under his feet to out in front of his feet. You can get away with that occasionally in the NFL and a lot more frequently in college, but use that type of technique consistently against the best rushers in the league and they will take advantage. 

The main issue with this technique is balance. Lunging at a rusher takes Coleman off balance and the best rushers in the league will use that against him. A simple swipe or club that knocks the hands down will mess with Coleman’s balance further and potentially cause him to fall over. The other problem with shooting both hands at the same time is that it can leave him vulnerable if those hands get knocked down. With a one-handed punch, if the hand gets knocked down, the other hand is still there to help recover the block. But with a two-handed punch, if both hands get knocked down by the same swipe or club, then the tackle is in trouble. 

Fortunately, Coleman has clearly been working on this issue throughout the offseason and only used his two-handed punch on rare occasions in this game. Instead, he leaned much more heavily on a different technique known as hand flashing. 

This time we see a good example of a hand flash technique. As Coleman slides out towards Hendrickson, he extends his outside arm out towards the rusher. This is very normal and Hendrickson assumes that Coleman is just looking to get his hand on him to try and cut off the rush to the edge, so he responds accordingly. Hendrickson sees the outside hand coming towards him and naturally tries to block it with his inside arm. As Hendrickson goes to hit Coleman’s outstretched hand with his inside hand, Coleman suddenly pulls his hand away. This leaves Hendrickson in a vulnerable position, which Coleman takes advantage of. 

Hendrickson’s inside arm is now outstretched but swiping at air, so Coleman uses this opportunity to reach out again with his outside arm and place his hand on the outside shoulder of the rusher. This helps him gain some control of the rush, preventing Hendrickson from simply turning the corner and closing on the quarterback. Now, Hendrickson does still try to get the edge, but because of Coleman’s hand placement after his hand flash, Coleman is able to stay in contact and run him by the quarterback. 

This hand flash technique is a nice move to have in the tool box for an offensive lineman. When used at the right times, it can bait those hand swipes from pass rushers and make them miss, screwing up the timing of their rushes. Coleman used this technique a few times throughout the game.