How the Commanders could look to run the ball without TE John Bates

John Bates could miss the Raiders game due to injury, so how might the Commanders look to run the ball without him?

The Washington Commanders could be without their top blocking tight end against the Raiders this weekend. John Bates suffered a groin injury in the Thursday night loss to the Packers which knocked him out of the game after just six snaps and as of Thursday, he had yet to take part in practice this week. Bates isn’t much of a factor in the passing game but is a huge part of what the Commanders do in the run game, so having him unavailable would be a big miss.

On Thursday, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was asked about the potential loss of Bates and the impact that has on preparing for the Raiders game.

“It’s not easy, there’s no doubt.” Kingsbury explained. “That showed up the other night [against the Packers]. He’s a big part of what we do in the run game. He’s really helped us be successful there. So we’ll just have to be creative with the other bodies we have and mix things up. But to have a guy at the point of attack that we feel is pretty dominant like him and not be able to game plan with him makes it tough.”

During the offseason, I broke down in detail just how much value Bates adds to the run game, so if you want a more detailed look at that, click here to read that post. But with Bates potentially out, the Commanders will have to come up with other solutions to help block the run game effectively. So what might some of those solutions be? Let’s take a closer look.

Ben Sinnott stepping up

The option I suspect most fans will be expecting is 2024 second round pick Ben Sinnott step up in Bates’ absence. He is the next guy in line and is a better blocker than Zach Ertz, but he’s not at the same level as Bates, especially as an inline blocker. Kingsbury was asked about Sinnott stepping up in his press conference on Thursday, and why Sinnott’s snaps didn’t increase after Bates went out against the Packers.

“He’s a guy who is versatile in that role. I think the game [against Green Bay] at some point there in the second half, mid-second half, got where we had to throw it more than we would have liked anyway with the score. But yeah, I’m excited to get him out there, get him going, having a full week of practice and doing some different things. I think he can play inline. We see him probably more as an off the ball guy, but he’s serviceable inline.”

Those last few lines are telling. They don’t see Sinnott as an inline blocker yet, they see him more of an off-ball blocker. What that means is the core blocking schemes that they run with Bates, where Bates is lined up next to either the right or left tackle and can block a bigger defensive lineman aren’t the types of blocks they see Sinnott being successful at right now. They see him as more of a movable piece. So what does that look like and how could Sinnott be used in ways he can be successful while still contributing to the run game?

This clip shows a sequence of two plays that happened back-to-back against the Titans last season. These plays are great examples of what Kingsbury means when he calls Sinnott more of an “off the ball guy”. He’s not lined up on the ball, meaning on the line of scrimmage. Instead, he’s just behind it. From this position, he doesn’t have to take on a big defensive lineman immediately off the snap. Instead, he has the chance to get on the move, working to either side of the line or inserting into the scheme somewhere, but with some momentum to take into whatever block he makes.

On the first play of this clip, we see the Commanders line up in a pistol formation with Jeremy McNichols at running back behind Jayden Daniels. Sinnott aligns as a H-Back just behind the line of scrimmage and between right tackle Cornelius Lucas and fellow tight end John Bates. The Commanders run an inside zone scheme here, with McNichols carrying the ball inside and Sinnott sifting back across the line to kick out the back side edge defender. The hope is that the offensive line can create some movement up front, washing the defensive line to the right side while Sinnott cuts off the back side edge player and creates a lane for the back to cut into. On this occasion, McNichols opts to hit the run to the front side, but you can see how the lane could be created by that sift block.

Now the fun part about those sift blocks is what you can do off of them. We see an example of one thing you can do off of it on the second play of the clip, which was the very next play of the game. Pre-snap, everything looks exactly the same. The Commanders are in the pistol with McNichols behind Daniels and Sinnott is in that same H-Back position to the right side. However, this time the Commanders are running a read-option play. Instead of sifting back across the line to block the back side edge defender, Sinnott sifts back and bluffs him before arcing around him to lead the way for Daniels.

Daniels reads the edge defender and has the choice to either hand it off inside or pull the ball and run to the edge. The defensive end spots Sinnott making what he thinks is the same sift block from the same look as the previous play, so he naturally assumes the same block is coming. As a result, he works inside and looks to meet Sinnott further inside to try and blow up the run inside. However, Sinnott suddenly arcs around him and the defender knows he’s in trouble. Daniels is given a clear pull read and he keeps it himself as he bursts to the edge. Sinnott works around the edge defender and works up to the second level as a lead blocker for Daniels, who sprints down the sideline for a first down.

That two play sequence was a great example of just how difficult it can be as a defensive end to defend the run against a team with a read-option threat. On one play, they’re getting blocked by a tight end, on the next, they’re left completely unblocked and being read by the quarterback. Without Bates, the Commanders can use Sinnott in what’s known as a Y Off position, where he’s technically the Y tight end, which is the role Bates usually plays, but he can take a step back off the line of scrimmage, enabling him to be off the ball and execute things like these sift blocks and arc blocks, and then even build into the play-action game with bootlegs to the flat where Sinnott could show off his yards after catch ability.

If the Commanders go down this route, I would expect to see Sinnott in these spots more than just playing inline as a direct replacement for Bates. Of course, there will be times they want to put a tight end on the line of scrimmage and run the ball, like they do with Bates. But Kingsbury can still be creative in those situations to find a way to put Bates on the line of scrimmage while still getting him to block in space rather than inline.

This play comes from the Commanders game against the Cardinals early last season. Sinnott lines up to the left of the formation outside Bates as the second tight end. Typically in this sort of look, Sinnott would be required to block the edge defender, which is not his strength as of now. So instead, the Commanders call a sweep scheme, pulling both guards to the edge. For Sinnott, this means he can fake blocking the edge just for a moment to create some doubt in the defenders mind before then looping around him to work up to the second level.

As Sinnott loops around the defender, the pulling guards work across and pick him up. Sinnott then works up to the second level where he meets a smaller defensive back in space. Obviously he has a size advantage, but you will often see bigger offensive lineman struggle in this situation because those smaller defensive backs can use the space and their athleticism to run around the block. Sinnott provides the perfect middle ground of being big enough to have a significant size advantage to make the block, but still athletic enough to avoid the defender escaping him. You can see the defender does his best to try and sneak past him to the outside, but Sinnott stays engaged with the block and shoves him further outside towards the sideline, providing a lane for the running back to cut behind him and burst down the sideline for a long touchdown.

So that’s one way the Commanders could go to try and replace Bates. I’m sure a lot of fans would like to see Sinnott step up and show why the team drafted him in the second round last year. But based on Kingsbury’s comments, I’m not sure they see him as being ready to step up significantly just yet. So what other solutions might Kingsbury look to if Bates ends up missing the game?

RPOs

Run-pass option plays (RPOs) are a great way to manipulate the defense into generating good looks in the run game. They typically work one of two ways. The first is with numbers. The quarterback counts the number of defenders in the box and then the number of defenders over the passing option and decides pre-snap if it’s better to run or pass based on the number of defenders in those spots. The other way it’s done is by having the quarterback read a single defender, usually a linebacker. If that defender triggers on the run, the quarterback can pull the ball and throw a pass into the space vacated by the defender. If the defender holds his position, the quarterback can hand it off and the offensive line doesn’t have to block that defender.

Either way it’s done, the offense gets an advantage and helps in the run game. When it comes to Bates though, typically the Commanders would use him as an inline tight end as part of the run scheme. Without him, they would have to get creative, but Kingsbury did show some fun RPOs last year that involved Ertz as the tight end running a route as part of the pass option.