Commanders Training Camp Review: OL vs DL 1-on-1s

Breaking down a clip of some 1-on-1s from the OL vs DL in the Commanders first padded practice of training camp

The Washington Commanders had their first padded practice of training camp on Monday. There’s always a different level of hype and intensity when the pads come on for the first time and we finally get to see some physicality, especially in the trenches. Unfortunately, the team is still being very secretive with clips being posted online and fans in attendance being allowed to film, but some fans still posted a few clips

One of the few clips I was able to find was a good one. It came from @AsiasAnalysis on twitter. She posted a clip of offensive line vs defensive line one-on-one drills. This is one of the best drills to watch when the pads come on so it was good to see a few reps. I’ll post the full clip from Asia first and then cut up each individual clip to break down in more detail.

There’s quite a few different reps in this clip so let’s go through them individually.

The first full rep we see is right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. against free agent signing Odafe Oweh. I wrote a few weeks ago about Conerly learning from Tunsil and you can see some improvements here, but still some things to work on. Oweh takes his first few steps up the field, challenging the edge. Conerly does a better job staying square compared to last year. His feet, hips and shoulders are much more square to the line of scrimmage than they were during the season last year. That’s a positive start.

However, Oweh hits Conerly with a spin move. Conerly was guilty of giving up inside rushes a fair bit last year and part of the reason for that is that he often didn’t have his cleats in the ground at the point of contact. You can see here that as Oweh makes contact, Conerly is shuffling his inside foot backwards. Oweh works into his spin and if you pause the clip when you can see the full number 98 on Oweh’s back, you’ll see that both of Conerly’s feet are off the ground. That gives him no base to absorb any post.

It’s a nice, tight spin from Oweh to get inside, but credit to Conerly for not giving up on the play. Conerly has the athletic ability to recover from bad situations and he does that here somewhat. He works to get his inside hand on Oweh’s chest to slow him down and try to delay the rush. Conerly leans on him and keeps a firm grip, enabling him to push Oweh down the line slightly. This would have bought the quarterback time to shuffle to his right and potentially scramble away from the pressure.

Overall, it’s not an ideal rep from Conerly but one that shows some significant improvements with regards to staying square, while also showing there’s still some work to go, which we expect of all second year players. On the other side of the ball, it was a nice rush from Oweh that clearly generated plenty of pressure and would have forced the quarterback off the spot. With his athleticism, Oweh would have had a decent chance of breaking free and chasing down many quarterbacks too.

Next up we have rookie edge rusher Joshua Josephs against veteran offensive lineman Andrew Wylie. Wylie appeared to be filling in for Laremy Tunsil at left tackle here while all the other starting offensive lineman were in, so I’m guessing they just wanted to give Tunsil some rest and protect him during the first day of padded practice. A veteran like Wylie is a good test for Josephs, who has great traits but lacked technique and polish coming out of college.

Josephs comes with a speed rush from a wide alignment. You can see the burst off the snap as he gets up the field quickly. By his second step he’s basically level with Wylie and by his third step his hip is further up the field than Wylie’s. That forces Wylie to open up and turn his back to the line of scrimmage, which is never an ideal place to be as an offensive lineman. But while Josephs has good speed, he doesn’t make the most of it. His hand fighting is still raw and you can see how he doesn’t really come with a plan to beat Wylie with his hands. He sort of jabs at them but never manages to clear them, which enables Wylie to stay engaged in the block.

Josephs has super long arms, that length could develop into one of his best traits in the long term, but you can see here that he doesn’t make best use of it right now. He should have been able to reach out and knock down Wylie’s hands to keep himself clean as he turned the corner. Instead, Wylie is able to keep his hands on Josephs’ shoulder. Now, it’s still impressive the amount of bend Josephs gets around the edge. If you pause the clip on Josephs’ fifth step, you can see the angle his standing leg is at as he gets low to turn the corner. That’s very tough for a tackle to deal with, but because he couldn’t clear those hands, Wylie is able to give him a shove on the shoulder and knock him off balance.

Now, it’s overall still a solid rush from Josephs, but Wylie probably did just enough to run him beyond the quarterback and delay the rush long enough for the ball to be thrown. But it’s a great example that Josephs has the traits you want. Good burst, good length, good bend around the edge. He just needs to develop some hand fighting techniques and he can become a real part of that edge rush rotation.