Commanders Offensive Line Dominant vs Broncos Pass Rush

Breaking down the strong performance from the Commanders offensive line vs the Broncos strong pass rush

The performance of the Washington Commanders offensive line stood out in the overtime loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday night. The Broncos boast one of the best defenses in the NFL with a very strong defensive line. They lead the league in sacks as a team and are the only team with three pass rushers to have six or more sacks. Edge rusher Nik Bonitto leads the team with 10.5 sacks but he’s closely followed by fellow edge rusher Jonathan Cooper on 7.5 and defensive tackle Zach Allen on six. Collectively, it’s a very tough unit to handle and one that provided the Commanders with a significant test.

But the Commanders have invested a lot in their offensive line since Adam Peters took over as general manager. He signed center Tyler Biadasz in free agency in 2024, extended right guard Sam Cosmi before the 2024 season, traded for left tackle Laremy Tunsil in the 2025 offseason and spent the team’s 2025 first round pick on right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. It’s a unit with a lot of potential and clearly a group that Peters wants to build the foundation of his team on. Against a strong Broncos unit, we saw that vision come to life as the offensive line dealt with the Broncos pass rush better than any team in the league has so far this season.

Now it’s worth stating that offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and his offensive staff did a nice job getting the team into the game. Early on, the Commanders focused on running the ball and using quick game passes to negate that fierce Broncos pass rush. They then moved into some play-action passes to try and keep that pass rush guessing. But as the game progressed, the Commanders used more and more drop back passing and the offensive line did a terrific job.

The whole unit does well on this play but I was particularly impressed with the interior trio of guards Chris Paul and Sam Cosmi, as well as center Tyler Biadasz. The Commanders run a loose play-action pass and the Broncos rush five. At the snap, you see the Commanders offensive line fan out aggressively. Laremy Tunsil at left tackle gets out quickly to Nik Bonitto, who hesitates slightly due to the play-action fake. That slight hesitation is all Tunsil needs to get in position quickly and take away Bonitto’s threat. On the right side, tight end John Bates chips edge rusher Jonathan Cooper, but Josh Conerly is right there ready to take over too. But its the interior guys I want to focus on here.

Sam Cosmi at right guard also fans out quickly, using a quick set to help sell the play-action fake, but also quickly get onto defensive tackle John Franklin-Meyers, who is fourth on the Broncos sack charts with 4.5 sacks so far this season. Cosmi gets his hands on him and essentially stonewalls him from that point. At center, Tyler Biadasz gives up some ground against nose tackle D.J. Jones, but fights hard to stay in front and gain control of the block. He forces Jones wider before stopping his momentum completely to stop the rush. But the most impressive block in this play is that of Chris Paul at left guard. Paul takes on Zach Allen, one of the better interior pass rushers in the NFL right now.

Paul also uses a quick set to get his hands on Allen early, but Allen reads the quick set as an opportunity to slant inside and work against Paul’s momentum. However, Paul has incredibly strong hands and as soon as he gets them on the chest of the defender, he gains a lot of leverage. Allen attempts to dart inside, but Paul’s hands are able to prevent him from doing so. Allen then tries to change direction and work back outside, but Paul negates that too. Allen keeps fighting to try and work either side of Paul, but Paul maintains his hand placement on Allen’s chest and uses his strong hands to keep him in front regardless of which way he attempts to rush. The most impressive part is that Paul does that without giving up any ground. By the time the ball is thrown, Mariota has no defender within three yards of him, which is about as perfect as a pocket gets in the NFL.

That interior trio was strong all night, as we’ll see throughout the rest of these clips, but they didn’t just handle one-on-ones well. They also worked as a unit to handle stunts and games that the Broncos threw at them.

This time we see the Broncos use a four-man rush with the two defensive tackles running an interior stunt. Cosmi initially looks to block the defensive tackle lined up over him, but that player stunts inside quickly towards Biadasz. Biadasz takes over that block and shoves the defender wider to the left side, almost becoming the left guard in the process. Meanwhile, Chris Paul at left guard feels his defender follow that stunt inside, so he moves with him and gives him a shove out to the right side of the line, where Cosmi is position to take over. Cosmi and Biadasz take on the stunting lineman while Paul almost becomes the new center. Just like before, Mariota is afforded plenty of time and space in the pocket to find a throw down the field.

The protection wasn’t just strong on the interior though. The tackles on the edge both held up very well too. Tunsil and Conerly had tough matchups in Bonitto and Cooper, but both played extremely well. Tunsil in particular was excellent as he was provided with very little help against Bonitto, while Conerly did receive some help in the form of chips, as we’ve already seen in these few clips. But you would expect to try and help a rookie right tackle against a strong pass rush, and both Conerly and Tunsil played well and deserve praise for their efforts.

I’ve highlighted all three of the Broncos top pass rushers on this second and long play. Bonitto lines up outside Tunsil at left tackle while Cooper works against Conerly at right tackle. Zach Allen lines up outside of Chris Paul at left guard, but stunts inside towards center Tyler Biadasz. Bonitto gets a great jump off the snap, so good that it was almost offsides. A speed rusher like Bonitto getting that type of jump would normally put most left tackles into panic mode, but not Tunsil. Tunsil knows he has great feet and he calmly slides out to Bonitto, matching his athleticism and cutting off the rush. Bonitto attempts to dip and bend around the edge, but Tunsil gets his outside hand on him and prevents him from doing so, negating his rush.

On the other side of the line, Conerly faces Cooper, who initially rushes up the field but then attempts to dart inside. We’ve seen Conerly struggle with some inside rushes this year, especially when he oversets to the edge anticipating a speed rush. He’s not perfect here, but he does a good job reacting to Cooper stunting inside. He quickly redirects his feet and mirrors the move inside, washing Cooper down the line inside towards Sam Cosmi. That actually provides Mariota with a path to the edge, which he takes as he scrambles for a first down.

While that rep was mostly about Tunsil and Conerly, it’s worth also pointing out that Biadasz did a nice job against Allen. Allen stunts inside of Paul, who passes him off to Biadasz. Biadasz does a nice job taking on the powerful defensive lineman and manages to drop anchor to stay in front of him despite the defender getting a head of steam from the stunt. It was another strong rep from the offensive line as a collective, as well as individually.

As a group, the offensive line was strong across the board, but each individual stood out in their respective matchups too. Tunsil was perhaps the most impressive given he was facing one of the top edge rushers in the NFL right now in Bonitto.