What OL Nick Gates brings to the Washington Commanders
Breaking down what the Commanders are getting in their new offensive lineman.
The Washington Commanders entered free agency with a clear intent to improve the offensive line. Signing Andrew Wylie from the Chiefs was an obvious fit given his history with Eric Bieniemy and he’ll become a starter right away. But Wylie wasn’t the only free agent offensive lineman the team signed. Nick Gates, a back up interior offensive lineman who has spent his entire career with the Giants, went undrafted in 2018 but caught on in New York and has filled in across the line throughout his career to date.
Listed at 6-foot-6, 318 pounds, Gates joins a Washington offensive line in need of quality and depth. Where exactly he’ll play is uncertain at this point. At his size, he might look more like a tackle but he’s mostly played on the interior for the Giants. While he might be a little taller than ideal for the position, I think his best spot by a distance is at center, where if Chase Roullier ends up being cut for cap or injury reasons, he could compete for a starting role.
I watched four games of Gates from the 2022 season, two where he started at left guard (one against Washington, one against Philadelphia) and two where he started at center (against Dallas and the second game against Philadelphia). I watched the two games of him at left guard first and frankly, I couldn’t understand the signing at all. He desperately struggled at left guard, albeit against some very good players. Jonathan Allen, for example, gave him an incredibly tough time.
Gates had a lot of issues at guard, especially in pass protection. Defensive tackles frequently attacked his outside shoulder and beat him to the edge and he was always on the back foot trying to recover.
Here are two examples of Gates struggling at left guard. The first play of the clip shows Jon Allen beating him to the edge with a swipe move to clear his hands before ripping through with his inside arm and getting past Gates. Gates gets fully turned around and only just manages to shove Allen beyond the quarterback as the quarterback stepped up in the pocket to avoid the pressure. In the second play of the clip, Eagles defensive tackle Milton Williams, a third round pick back in 2021, also beats Gates to the edge. He comes off the snap and lands a strong punch to Gates’ chest before dipping and ripping through the outside shoulder on his way to sacking the quarterback.
One matchup worth highlighting was how he played Eagles defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. In the first game against the Eagles, Gates played left guard and faced off against Hargrave one-on-one a fair bit, with Hargrave getting the better of him quite frequently.
This clip shows two plays where Hargrave got the better of Gates in a one-on-one matchup at left guard. In the first play, Gates attempts to land a punch on Hargrave and take away his initial rush plan. He actually does land that punch, but Hargrave uses the momentum from the punch to work outside and threaten Gates on the edge. Gates then gets opened up and Hargrave converts to a bull rush, getting his hands on Gates’ chest and driving him back into the quarterback. The second play is quite similar, with Gates using a quick set to try and land an early punch on Hargrave. However, Hargrave manages to swipe the punch down and burst inside, generating big pressure almost immediately on the quarterback, who does well to get his throw away.
This is obviously a bad look for Gates and a concern for why Washington would look to sign him. However, a few weeks later when the Eagles played the Giants again, Gates was shifted inside to center, where he fared far better against Hargrave.
Now I’ll say up front, these two reps aren’t pure one-on-ones like the two plays at left guard were. On both of these plays, the left guard did help Gates out a bit with Hargrave, but the help was minimal and Gates did a much better job handling Hargrave. Part of this is probably because at the center position, the defensive tackle is likely only to go one way if he’s aligned shaded to one side in order to keep gap integrity. At guard, the defensive tackle has a bit more freedom to attack either side of the guard. But even with that considered, Gates does a much better job landing his initial punch on Hargrave and then resetting his hands to gain leverage and control of the block. On both occasions Hargrave is pretty much stonewalled.
Gates looked far more at home in the two games playing center than he did in the two games playing left guard. At center, he’s less likely to face one-on-one matchups from defensive tackles attacking from a wide alignment. In those situations, he almost always required help to pick up the blocks successfully. At center though, he is the help for the guards and he suits that role much better.
These three plays show Gates snapping the ball from center before he slides to his right to help the right guard pick up Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. On the first play, Cox aligns in the A gap so Gates quickly helps to pick up the block and ends up taking it on all by himself, allowing the right guard to slide outside to try and help the tackle on the edge. The second and third plays show Cox aligning in a much wider position. On both of those plays, the guard was worried about being beaten on the outside, much like Gates was earlier, so he sets to the outside to cut off that rush knowing Gates is there inside to secure the move inside. Cox feels the overset on both plays and attempts to work across his face to get inside, but on both occasions Gates is there to meet him and stonewall him.
Centers are also relied upon to pick up stunts and twists by the defensive line and against the Cowboys, who like to run a bunch of stunts, Gates showed he was capable of picking those up.
Here are three different examples of stunts with the edge rusher stunting inside by looping around the defensive tackle to try and attack the A gap. On the first play, Gates checks for a blitz from the linebackers before sliding right and landing a strong punch to stop the edge defender looping inside. On the second play, Gates gets his eyes outside early, knowing the threat of a stunt from Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. Lawrence is forced to go early thanks to the chipping tight end, but Gates is there in time to not only pick up the stunt, but land a strong hit on Lawrence when he arrives. The third play sees Micah Parsons stunt inside off the left side of the offensive line. Gates again anticipates the stunt, with his eyes going straight to Parsons off the snap as he slides across to position himself correctly for the stunt. Parsons works further inside than he anticipated, but Gates manages to pick him up safely.
Gates was far more comfortable and played to a significantly higher standard at center than he did in the games I watched at left guard. This didn’t just apply to pass protection either. In the run game, Gates showed plenty of promise from the center position. He’s a big body for a center and uses his strength well to create movement in the run game.
This play against the Cowboys is just a simple power scheme with the right guard pulling to the left side of the line. On power and counter schemes, the center has to make up an extra gap quickly and block down on the defensive tackle before he can penetrate in the hole vacated by the guard. Sometimes the defensive tackle on the pulling side aligns in the A gap, making it easier for the center to reach him, but here the defensive tackle aligns in the B gap, meaning Gates has to be quick to get across and cut him off. Not only is Gates quick to close the gap, he comes off the snap with power and drives the defensive tackle outside, washing him out of the play completely. In fact, he drives him into the edge defender and actually ends up taking on the block of the edge defender. The running back stayed on his original track to the left side of the line, but had he noticed Gates’ block, he might have been able to cut his run back into a huge lane on the back side.
Another feature of Gates’ game, which made him a fan favorite in New York, is his ability and desire to finish blocks to the ground.
Here we see the Giants run a zone play with a twist. Instead of a typical zone play with all the lineman blocking in the same direction, the Giants flip the script for the right guard and center. On a typical play, Gates at center would have to block the defensive tackle in the A gap and the right guard would climb to reach the second level defender. But on this occasion, the Giants have the guard block down on the defensive tackle with Gates wrapping around him and climbing to the second level. Gates shows solid quickness and mobility to pull from his spot and wrap around the block of the guard before being met in the hole by the second level defender.
The second level defender on this occasion happens to be safety Jayron Kearse, down in the box to help support the run. Kearse is a good run defender for a safety, but as a safety he also is about 100 pounds lighter than Gates. As Gates initiates contact, he manages to knock Kearse up in the air. He quickly recognizes how vulnerable Kearse is in that situation and his instinct to finish blocks takes over. Gates effectively picks Kearse up and then slams him down to the ground in a move that is probably more regularly seen in the WWE than in the NFL. He lands on top of him with his full weight and then takes his time getting up, making sure Kearse knows not to try him again.
That type of mentality is fantastic to see in offensive lineman and it’s easy to see why Gates became a fan favorite with the Giants. It wasn’t just in the run game he finished blocks like that either. In pass protection, he routinely went head hunting when he wasn’t left one-on-one with a defensive tackle.
Overall then, Gates is an interesting signing for the Commanders. To me, he is a far better center than anything else and if he was brought in for that purpose, he could well be a successful signing. He plays with a nasty streak that everyone loves in offensive lineman, but also shows the smarts to anticipate and pick up stunts and blitzes or slide across to help out a struggling guard. He’s also powerful enough to generate some movement in the run game.
The only question I have with that is that the team also re-signed Tyler Larsen and still have Chase Roullier on the roster at the time of writing, though he could be cut for salary cap purposes. If they do end up cutting Roullier, then Gates as the starting center with Larsen as the back up would make sense and while I don’t think he would be a top end center, he would likely be adequate. But as long as Roullier remains on the roster, the Commanders have two established centers already so I’m not sure we can assume Gates was signed to be a center. If he’s been signed to be a guard or back up swing lineman, he has significantly less value in my opinion given how much he struggled at guard. It’ll be interesting to see in the coming days and weeks what Ron Rivera and Eric Bieniemy see Gates as going forward.
Any PFF splits or useful metrics for her his time as a guard vs as a center?
Since Schweitzer just signed elsewhere maybe Gates was signed to fill that role?