How did Sam Cosmi play in Washington’s preseason opener?

A closer look at second-round OT Sam Cosmi’s performance in Washington’s preseason opener against the Patriots

Washington’s first preseason game of the 2021 season is over and we’ve now had a few days to review the game and digest what happened. One of the most requested players I was asked to review was second-round pick Sam Cosmi. Cosmi started at right tackle and played the entire first half, even as Washington shifted from the starting unit to the seconds at the end of the first quarter. 

One thing to note before we start is that there is no All-22 footage in preseason, so I’ve had to make do with the TV broadcast and replay angles, which don’t always give the best angles to view offensive line play. But with that in mind, here’s what I made of Cosmi’s debut with Washington.

One of the first things I noticed about Cosmi was his balance and center of gravity. In college, he had a bad habit of bending from the waist rather than the knees, meaning his head and shoulders lean forward and his center of gravity shifts from between his feet to in front of his feet. This can occasionally come from lunging at defenders too. What this leads to is being off balance, which makes it much easier for a defender to manipulate the block and get past him.

Here are a few examples of that balance issue for Cosmi. Consistent in all of the clips is how Cosmi’s head and shoulders have a forward lean, forcing his center of gravity in front of his feet, making it hard to maintain balance. In the second and third plays of the clip, he gets beaten to the edge rather easily because it doesn’t take much for a defender to manipulate that balance issue. In the third play of the clip in particular, you can see the defender get his hands on Cosmi’s chest and pull him forward to really highlight the balance issue, before then transitioning into a swim move to skip by him.

That is an issue Cosmi has to correct going forward. However, there were some occasional plays where he displayed better technique in that area.

On this play, Cosmi does start to bend from the waist, but the defender gets up into his chest with a bullrush attempt. With the defender standing him upright, Cosmi can’t bend from the waist, so he counters by widening his feet and bending his knees to get himself lower. This is exactly what he needs to do more often. This gives him better balance, allowing him to drop anchor and get under the defender, forcing the momentum of the defender upwards and stonewalling the rush.

One issue that has been commented on during training camp is Cosmi’s hands. He has a habit of keeping them low and wide, which isn’t an optimal position as it takes longer for him to get them up and react to the defender when he needs to. This wasn’t as common of an issue in this game, suggesting he’s worked on it quite a bit, but it did still crop up from time to time.

There are two good examples in this clip of low hands, but the first is the perfect one to show why it’s an issue. As Cosmi comes off the snap, he keeps both his hands low and wide. That means as the defender looks to engage him, Cosmi has to waste time bringing his hands up, giving the defender the opportunity to get his hands on Cosmi’s chest before Cosmi can get his own hands up to prevent that. With the defender getting both hands inside on his chest, he has total control of the block. 

This might subconsciously lead into the waist bending problem too. With low hands, Cosmi’s chest is a big target, so it's possible that Cosmi subconsciously bends down lower to try and make the target smaller and protect his chest a little bit. That’s only a theory on my part, but it’ll be interesting to see if the hands being higher helps stop the waist bending in the future.

One big positive from Cosmi’s game was the ability to recognize, pick up and pass off stunts from the defense. NFL defenses love to run stunts and games up front against young offensive lineman. Offensive lineman have to be quick to recognize the stunt and communicate it quickly to their teammates in order to pass off and pick up the correct defender. It can take some time for younger lineman to learn not only the signs of a stunt, but the communication and cohesion with the rest of the offensive line to ensure every defender is accounted for. But Cosmi was tested early and often and did a good job.

The Patriots ran stunts at Cosmi’s side of the line early and often and Cosmi passed nearly every test. Granted, they weren’t necessarily the most well executed stunts at times, but he still did a solid job recognizing the stunt and communicating with the interior lineman to pick up the defensive tackle working outside and making sure the interior guys were aware of the defensive end stunting inside. In all three examples, we can see Cosmi quickly shuffling back inside to pick up the defensive tackle, freeing up right guard Brandon Scherff to work back inside with time to pick up the stunting defensive end.

In the run game, Cosmi was more impressive. A trait I mentioned after the draft was his ability to finish run blocks. He has a nasty streak to him where he likes to drive his defender to the ground and block through the whistle. That’s a great trait to have as an offensive lineman and Cosmi brought it with him to his first preseason games.

These two plays are good examples of Cosmi finishing his run blocks. On the first play, Cosmi initially works on a double team inside with Wes Schweitzer at right guard. After helping secure that defender, Cosmi peels off and works up to the linebacker on the second level. He engages and then drives the defender back, pushing him over and falling on top of him. The second play comes down near the goal line. Cosmi again works a double team inside with Schweitzer, but this time Schweitzer is the one to peel off and work to another defender. However, when Cosmi takes on full responsibility for the block, he doesn’t just maintain it, he drives the defender back and into the end zone, pancaking him to the ground emphatically.

One slight issue I had with Cosmi in the run game is another I brought up after the draft. If he’s not blocking defenders to the ground, he struggles to maintain his run blocks. He can often start the blocks well and get some good initial push, especially as the defender is trying to read and diagnose the play. But sometimes he can just fall off blocks at the wrong time, allowing the defenders to recover and make the play.

On the first play of this clip, Cosmi works a combination block with rookie tight end John Bates. The pair get great push on the defensive end, driving him back two yards off the line of scrimmage. But as Bates peels off to work to his assignment, Cosmi fails to maintain the block. The defender drops anchor and Cosmi attempts to overpower him, but the defender ends up slipping by him as Cosmi goes down. On the second play, Cosmi works on the back side of a zone run to the left. He does a great job to reach his defender and again generates plenty of movement, driving him back three or four yards. However, the defender manages to work to Cosmi’s outside shoulder and get off the block as the running back approaches, assisting in the tackle.

It’s important to point out that there were plenty of positives from Cosmi in both of those plays. The amount of movement he generated was fantastic, but he fell off both blocks just at the wrong time as the running back was approaching him. Washington still picked up solid gains on each play that they would be happy with on a consistent basis. But Cosmi sustaining a block all the way through the play instead of falling off it right at the end could potentially be the difference between a four or five yard gain and an explosive 20-plus yard gain. Again, just a small quibble, but something that can be improved.

Overall, I think we saw some flashes of potential from Cosmi, especially with the moment he was able to generate in the run game and how comfortable he looked passing off stunts with Brandon Scherff already. However, his technique is still a work in progress. The low hands and waist bending, which might be linked, need to be corrected or NFL level pass rushers will be beating him. Progress with those two traits are the things to watch for from Cosmi as preseason goes on.