Looking for answers to Commanders offensive struggles? It's obvious originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Through four games of the 2021 season the Commanders surrendered the most sacks in the NFL. It’s tough to win games in that scenario, and their 1-3 record reflects that reality.
The high sack total is not totally on the Washington offensive line, but certainly that unit plays a large role in quarterback Carson Wentz going down so frequently. Wentz doesn’t always help his O-line either, hanging onto the ball too long, rolling into pressure or not stepping up into the pocket. But the line has been porous far too often.
As fans and analysts scratch their heads to figure out why one of last season’s top NFL offensive lines according to Pro Football Focus has struggled so much this year, one possible answer emerges: losing Brandon Scherff.
Washington’s first All Pro in more than 25 years, the Commanders let Scherff leave this offseason and sign a three-year $50 million contract with the Jaguars.
A stalwart right guard, Scherff was the best offensive lineman in Washington during head coach Ron Rivera’s first two seasons, landing an All Pro selection in 2020 and Pro Bowl bids in 2020 and 2021.
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Perhaps more importantly, the Commanders record in those seasons reflects Scherff’s important play.
Since Rivera took over in Washington in 2020, the football team went 14-11 while Scherff was on the field.
When Scherff didn’t play, Rivera’s teams were 0-9.
This season without Scherff, Washington is off to a 1-3 start.
That’s simple math.
Some fans will say Scherff missed too much time to validate a massive contract, but NFL talent evaluators and salary cap managers would disagree. Loudly.
In fact, Washington must disagree too, after all they offered Scherff a big contract in 2021 only to watch him leave in 2022.
Consider also what’s happened this season at right guard since Scherff went to Jacksonville.
Trai Turner has already been benched and the PFF grades for Washington’s unit have been ugly. That doesn’t even take into account intangible things like leadership and accountability that all of Scherff’s teammates always talked about.
Losing Scherff this season is obviously a loss, but go back even further and there was a seismic shift in 2020 when Washington traded away Trent Williams.
Losing Williams was complicated and that conversation requires context, but the simple fact is he’s probably going to the Hall of Fame someday, and Hall of Fame tackles don’t often get traded. Tony Boselli played his whole career in Jacksonville. Jonathan Ogden played his whole career in Baltimore.
Williams was traded in 2020, and for only a third-round and fifth-round pick.
Ask around the NFL and Williams is widely regarded as the best tackle in football. There’s not even much debate.
Williams never played in Washington under Rivera, but Scherff did. Both Williams and Scherff are arguably the best players in the league at their position.
That’s a tremendous loss of talent for one position group, and that doesn’t even include the loss of players like Morgan Moses and Ereck Flowers.
John Matsko does an admirable job in his work as Commanders offensive line coach, and has a sterling reputation around the league. He’s molded good groups in Washington and plenty of stops before.
But the task this year might be too great, especially after injuries to starting center Chase Roullier and right tackle Sam Cosmi. Washington is already on its third center of the season, and could play a fourth soon with Tyler Larsen returning from injured reserve.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but when watching the Commanders offensive struggles so far this season, it’s hard not to think of what might have been along the offensive line.
