MUST-HAVE: Why Laremy Tunsil Will TRANSFORM the Washington Commanders' Cap and Future Moves

0:00With one contract, Adam Peters can solidify the second most important position on his offense, while also freeing up about $15 million in cap space before free agency begins on Monday. You are Lockdown Commanders, your daily podcast on the Washington Commanders, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. This is Lockdown Commanders, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network. And I'm David Harrison, your guy on the ground, credential member of the media covering the Washington Commanders for WUSA 9, also writing for Commanders on SI. Here with you five days, we coming up on today's episode, championship rosters are known for their stars, but it's a foundation they're built upon that matters first and going under center and running more is quite the undertaking for the commander's offense. So why no run game coordinator, but first delaying Laramie tonsils deal could be risky.

1:00So what is Adam Peters waiting for all of that coming up on today's episode of Lockdown Commanders, part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day, continuing with our series of mailbag episodes here. A lot of great questions coming from our insiders are every day or club, all access members. This one coming from TJ, who wants to know how long will it take Adam Peters to extend Laramie tonsil, shouldn't protecting the franchise and sorting out the O line, be the top priority. And I would just say quick answer is how long is it going to take Adam Peters? It's not as easy as how long will it take Adam Peters, because this is definitely a two person dance and really it's many more people in the dance. But for the sake of our conversation, it's a two person dance, Adam Peters and Laramie tonsil, both have to want to get the deal done. That's part of it. But the other part of it is, yes, absolutely the offensive line should be a priority on them about the priority, but at the end of the day, just because something is the priority

2:01doesn't mean that's the first thing you accomplish. Let's take for example, if you have a life goal of running a marathon. So right now, my priority is finishing this marathon, obviously a train for it. So along the way to the end goal, there are other little things that are going to happen along the way. Hopefully that analogy makes sense. So what's current status of the Laramie tonsil situation, Adam Peters confirmed at the calm mind that talks are, quote unquote, good and productive between the organization and Laramie tonsil and his people, but there's no hard deadline. He's not putting a March 11th league year start deadline, not putting a March 9th open negotiating period deadline on it, but he did acknowledge that there is, there is internal pressure or motivation said, quote unquote, as motivated as ever to get the deal done. And the price of it is going to be significant, right? Because not only did Adam Peters trade a second and a fourth rounder to get Laramie tonsil on the roster, he also is going to now have to figure out a way to fork over the dough in the cap space to keep Laramie tonsil under contract beyond 2026.

3:02Laramie tonsil is under contract for 2026. Just be very, very clear about that. So that's another reason that there's no hard deadline because if the extension isn't done by Monday at noon, when the open negotiating period starts, Laramie tonsils under contract. He can't negotiate with anybody else. He's not going anywhere. Now his current cap hit for 2026, $24.9 million is substantial. And that is kind of where the benefit from this comes in the faster Adam Peters gets to done the more benefit there is because the extension will also reasonably lower that number potentially could clear around 10 to 15 million dollars more in cap space for Adam Peters. And that's more money, more room for him to agree to contracts with new players to come in and help bolster the roster. So the good news or the so that's kind of what everybody's really waiting for. Now the good news there is the Washington has already had the second most cap space in the NFL. So they don't need the money per se unless they're planning on going out there and spending $100 million in for in for agency, which I don't think they're necessarily going to

4:03do. Then obviously you can still have a fireworks off season, make big splash plays, quote unquote, as everybody wants them to do spending $60 million, $65, even $70 million in cap space versus having to spend like $100 million to do it. Now he's not just a tackle, Laramie Thompson, right? Obviously even a lot more important that he's the protector of the blind side for Jane Daniels. Jane Daniels has publicly said the Laramie Thompson is a quote unquote pro pro has contributed to even his own growth from the mental side of the game, things like that dealing with pressure, all that stuff. He's also a mentor to Josh Connerley Jr., and we're going all the way back to mandatory mini camp. Laramie Thompson was praising Josh Connerley Jr. for his ethic, his maturity and all kinds of other stuff. So Laramie Thompson isn't just a player. He's also a leader in the locker room. He's a coach to a certain extent to some of these guys and things like that. So having him on the left side for the next three to four years while Josh Connerley grows on the right side for the next three to four years, absolutely, absolutely imperative

5:04for the Washington commanders. So you're not talking about just that, just a player and I think and Laramie Thompson is very, very much aware of that. And you can't build a modern offense around a blind side protector who's just a turn style, right? You need consistency there. You need to have that, that ability. So I think that's why even though Brandon Coleman did an admirable job in 2024 as a rookie left tackle. I mean, the watch players looked at and said, yeah, but we don't need admirable. We need like a beast. We need a pillar at that position. So that's why they went out and got Laramie tonsil. He proved to be that pillar in 2025. So that's why you need to get it done. And that's why people are really, really nervous, but it's not just Laramie and it's not just Adam Peters. It's Terry McClure. And that is why let's all address the elephant in the room. It's the Terry McClure in situation that has everybody on edge. Nobody wants to see another star player go into the training camp period, go through the office season, holding out, doing all these things. Now, Adam Peters also explicitly said in Indianapolis that he wants to avoid that quote

6:05unquote, saga again, Titus Howard just recently got a new deal for $21 million a year. Laramie tonsil. That's not even going to sniff Laramie tonsils. You're expecting to see him reset the market at about $30 million a year. And in this conversation, the longer Adam Peters waits, the more that price tag might go up because other guys are going to sign contracts. But here's the thing. That's why Laramie tonsil has reason to wait. It's not just on Adam Peters. Laramie tonsil also is aware that the longer this thing goes on, the more likely are the more opportunities there are for other offends and linemen out there to go get contracts. But it's not just tackles. When we look at the tackle market, honestly, there's really nobody that I see and I can't go. I haven't gone team to team to look at every left tackle and every right tackle for a left handed quarterback and all this stuff to see who deals are up and all this stuff. So really, there's not a huge threat to the person to reset the mark for the left tackle position. However, remember, offends and linemen are all tied together. That's a reason Tyler Lindermom is not getting franchise tag by the Baltimore Ravens

7:06because it's not a center franchise tag. It's an online franchise tag. Those tackle contracts are incorporated into what a center would be would be making if you were franchise tag because the NFL considers it all one group. Just like that, however, those centers and those guards, whether they get paid matters as well, because if the center market gets reset, Tyler Lindermom is expected to reset the center market. If the market for the centers goes up, the market for everybody else goes up to because if the highest paid tackle in the NFL right now makes $20 million more than the highest paid center. For example, I don't know that's the numbers, just follow me on the analogy. If the highest paid tackle gets paid $20 million a year more than the highest paid center and the highest paid center now gets paid $30 million a year, then guess what? That highest paid tackle, he's going to want to get paid $50 million a year, right? You're going to want to keep that buffer, what you don't want to happen if you're the market setting tackle is tackles are making $20 million more than the centers.

8:09The center, you agreed to a deal for $30 million and now that center makes $30 million and now all the sudden tackles and centers are getting paid the same thing and it's because you took that deal that that is happening. So believe me, as much as Adam Peters wants to get this done, as much as I want Adam Peters to get this done, as much as you want Adam Peters to get this done, it's also on Laramie Tonsul. Laramie Tonsul's got to get this thing done too. There are two horses, there's takes two to tango and all those euphemisms or cliches or whatever. It's not just on Adam Peters in this situation. The wash and tomatoes want to be aggressive and free agency. They've got enough money to do it regardless when the Laramie Tonsul extension gets done. With the Laramie Tonsul, with the Laramie Tonsul extension, the wash and tomatoes go from being rich and free agency to be in wealthy, right? You go to being the number one team in solar cap space and not buy a little bit. That extra cap space certainly could help you out. It will give you a little bit of authorization if you do need to go maybe overpay for like a year at Trayhendrickson, which I don't think you should do, but if they want to go do it, then you potentially do that.

9:09If you do want to get into a bidding war for a guy like Alec Pierce, which I don't think you should, but they could, then you can go ahead and do that. So getting the deal done sooner certainly has some room, but I would honestly think I probably don't expect to deal to get don't Laramie Tonsul until you find out at least what Tyler Linderbaum's contract is going to be because he is expected to set that center market. Because that center market is going to get reset, Laramie Tonsul is going to not only reset that tackle market, but he's going to want to make sure that that tackle gap between tackles and centers stays intact if not climbs just a little bit. So we owe the new scheme for David blouse speed and violence, all those things. You definitely want to keep that Laramie Tonsul, not that we need any more evidence to keep them. 84.7 PFF grade last year in blocking certainly knows how to get to the second level and dominate his man free agency is coming up and the question about the roster is not just who's going to be on the roster, but who's going to be coaching them and in what capacity that more next on today's episode of Lockdown Commanders part of the Lockdown podcast network

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11:20Thank you for being a Lockdown commander. It's your first listen or your first view today and every day and to the every day. Is those of you come through for every single episode, a special thank you for coming through for yet another one today for agency literally right around the corner. And of course, Lockdown is going to be here with you every step of the way and you can get one month free of the every day or club with the code free agency. I've seen plenty of you taking advantage of this. I greatly appreciate you taking advantage of it. Hopefully you enjoy everything that comes with it free agency. No space is all one word now through March 15th. Use that promo code. You get one month of every day or club for free membership level, ad free episodes and discord access all access episodes. You get all of that plus more, including a daily newsletter that comes straight to your email. So again, join the club locked on commanders dot supercast dot com promo code free agency. There is a URL in the show notes that has that free agency promo code in it. You just copy the entire URL put in your browser and it'll take you straight there continuing now with our mail bag episode.

12:21This one coming from Hamadu who wants to know about past game coordinators and run game coordinators. Is there a reason the team filled the office of past game coordinator role, but not the run game coordinator role will David Blaude and I'll stable to focus on the run while giving more past game responsibilities to David right and you're partially correct. And I, well, here's what I can say, I can't say if you're partially correct or all the way correct, but I don't know how David Blau specifically is going to do it. This is something that we might be able to ask Dan Quinn at the annual league meetings at the end of this month and Phoenix, Arizona. So we could get more clarification with. So what I'm going to talk about is commonalities, right, tendencies. What did teams generally do across the NFL? So early March, the commander finalized their 2026 coaching staff, David Rye, former tight ends coach for the wash man was promoted to the offense of past game coordinator. Very excited for him, very bright coach, very smart coach. Yeah, absolutely love it. But there is no official run game coordinator on the Washington commanders coaching staff. If you look through the roster there now, why in a lot of modern NFL offenses, especially

13:23a lot of the ones who are moving towards that pro style system, the run game coordinator duties are actually split between two people, but it's not Darnell Stapleton, the offensive line coach and the offensive coordinator, David Blau, it's the offensive line coach and the running backs coach, which is Anthony Lynn. Now, last year, Anthony Lynn was also the run game coordinator, right? So why is it different now? Because now it would appear and like I said, I can't tell you this for sure. We can try to answer this question at the end of the month for sure, but using generalities across the league, what most likely is happening is that both Darnell Stapleton and Anthony Lynn are going to essentially be the run game coordinator has one, not co run game coordinators and all that messy stuff. You don't really need all that, but that's basically what's going to happen. Meanwhile, David Blau is going to keep the keys to this game because he's a coordinator. He's got to make every decision. And what it does is it frees up David Rye, the past game coordinator, just focus on the route complexities, the combinations, all that kind of stuff delivered to David Blau. Then you have Anthony Stapleton or Anthony Stapleton, Darnell Stapleton and Anthony Lynn

14:28working together to formulate the rushing attack. David Blau receives it all, can collect it all, combines it all into one big game plan. And that's how you start to make things cook. So Anthony Lynn, part of that equation, if that is how the wash commanders are going to do it this year, not just a running backs coach, right? As a former head coach, he's very well known for his run game architecture. If you want to put it that way, building the run game last year, again, had that run game coordinator title. And then we can all agree that the run game, when it was used, was working pretty well. Even with a guy who doesn't have a great national reputation in Chris Rodriguez, Jr. and his seventh round, Rookie Chakory Kroski, Merit Leading the room. Obviously, they wanted Austin Echler to do that. Jeremy McNichols had his role as a veteran running back as well. I can't say that I agreed all the time with which back was being used when and all that stuff every day. There's one back to last season. You'll remember those conversations. There's no denying the running game itself was designed pretty well. So with him and Darnell Stapleton coming together, that's going to add just a little bit of

15:29a wrinkle. So let's talk about Darnell Stapleton here. Darnell Stapleton moving from the assisted online coach to the online coach is a big promotion for him. But it's also a big, it means something for the wash mares run game as well. Darnell Stapleton is a zone blocking scheme specials like that's kind of like his wheelhouse. So with David Blatt wanting that speed and violence, stable in history of Florida, Stan Houston, all that stuff is going to have you're going to have mobile linemen, you're going to have guys who can get to that second level. And this is where also that belief we're watching to move on from Tyler Biotis because they need someone who'd be better as a reach blocker comes into play. And if you've seen every episode this week, then you remember that part of the conversation. We talked about the center movement and the development and all that stuff. Tyler Biotis, one of the things he's great at is fighting in a phone booth, right? Set the ball, boom right there, engage and fight to dominate the spot of the snap. Well, he's not great at is getting up to the second level, sealing off that inside shoulder of a defender, whatever it is, he needs to get out there and move. So we think the washing managers are going to go out there and try to find someone who

16:30can move a little bit. Nick Gallagready can move a little bit better than Tyler Biotis Tyler Linderbaum. Obviously guy like that Conor McGovern, a guy like that Jake Slaughter in the NFL draft looks to be a guy like that. So there are plenty of options here for the wash commanders consider as they move forward that position. But that's kind of again, Darnell Stapleton, like that's kind of where he operates, right? So Darnell Stapleton's job and Anthony Lynch job is going to be to marry the zone blocking scheme. How can we get our guys out here? Where they good at? How can they kick? Who pulls really great? All these kinds of things. Anthony Lynn. How do I get my running back so flow with this to see the cut back lanes to read the lane properly? All that stuff. And essentially you have run game coordinator duties combined there between the two. They deliver that plan. Here's what's best. The guys do best. Here's what they don't do. Great. Here's what the back see. Here's what they do to David Blow. David Blow then incorporates it all with the data and the overall tendencies. What is the opponent doing? All this kind of stuff. And he throws it into the game playing David Rye replacing Brian Johnson last year's offensive pass game coordinator and assistant head coach moving on to the Los Angeles

17:33Randall long with Cliff Kingsbury. His job is going to be basically to support David Blow as a play collar and help coordinate the most complex part of an NFL passing or attack, which is the passing attack right all the layers to that passing windows and the NFL are smaller. They're more scheme dependent things like that have to make sense. They have to be logical. So having a dedicated coordinator for the passing game allows David Blow to lean on David Rye. So now it's not just on David Blow to remember every single schematic every single combination every single advantage. Now I can turn David Rye and say, Hey, David, it's starting long. We're in the red zone high red zone. What did we talk about? We talked about blah, blah, blah. This is probably a good time to unleash this. Some of the things we've heard David Blow get credit for Cliff Kingsbury. It's not because Cliff can't necessarily do that on his own. Although we do think that Cliff is limited in his creativity a little bit already. It's that there's so many different parts of these game plans that it makes sense to have you carry this part of the game plan. You carry this part. You carry this part. And then when I need it, you'll give me the information, they look like a sniper and

18:35a spotter. David Blow is a sniper, right? He's got a scope on the entire on the on the picture, even though scope actually narrows the picture, but go with me on this. He's as eyes to the scope looking at the situation. One of these coordinators, they got the they got the adjustments they got to make. They got all that kind of stuff. They give them the information. Boom, you fire it out the bro, not my greatest analogy, but just give me, give me some credit for that one. So David Blow has talked about wanting Jane Daniels under center more. That's going to help kind of incorporate this thing to again, it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to create an offensive game plan at times as well. And that's going to naturally kind of merges run in the passing games together. So I think, like I said, I can't tell you exactly because right now, I don't actually know. But given NFL generalities and kind of the way that most of the teams quote unquote do it, that's probably what's happening. And it's a great question to bring up the Dan Quinn at the annual league meetings. If you want to bring that up again, to me, him and do in a text message as I get down to Phoenix, I would be happy to ask if I don't remember on my own, because I think it's a great question. And it's certainly one that's going to apply as we get into the rest of the season, speaking

19:38of the rest of the season, the Washington commanders got three more players under contract in the trenches this time, turning to the defensive side of the ball. That's coming up next on today's episode of Locked On Commanders part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And this episode is sponsored by Better Help March is a time to celebrate women, especially when it comes to international women's day. And I recognize just how much they carry at work and relationships and families and all the unseen roles they step into every single day. It's easy to celebrate that strength, but it's just as important to make space for their emotional while being an honestly, that goes for all of us. When I look at all the things that my wife has done for me, for my family, throughout my military career, and even now after retirement, I mean, if the women in my life need to get that time to get away, re-centered themselves, find some perspective, whatever it is, Better Help is a place that I would send them to go get their emotional while being because it matters. With over 30,000 licensed therapists, more than six million people serve worldwide, Better

20:40Help is the world's largest online therapy platform, and it works. You fill out a short questionnaire, you get matched with licensed therapists, find support and feel lighter with therapy, sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash locked on. That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash locked on. We're wrapping up today's episode of Locked On Commanders on the Mailbag episode, but before we continue on with the mailbag questions, do you want to talk about some news here, The Washington Commanders, officially, well, actually unofficially because the deals haven't been signed yet, but have agreed to new contracts with Dietrich-wise Jr. Drake Jackson and defensive tackle, Shy Tuttle, confirmed all of those moves here this week for The Washington Commanders, wrote about it for wsa9.com, if you want to go check that out. Of course, Adam Peters basically is doing his locking down rotational depth. He's locking down veteran leadership all before March 9th to give him what is his favorite word, optionality. He wants to be able to go out there and not be pigeonholed into any one type of move.

21:41We saw him do this last week in the office side, getting Andrew Wiley back under contract, getting Nick Allegretti under a new contract, opened up a big hole at the center position by releasing Tyler Biodish, but again, it's all about laying that foundation down, prioritizing players who have shown that resilience, the culture fit, and the scheme fit for what they're going to be doing into the future. The good news here you should have is that Dorontate Jones, who wants to be multiple, wants to do a lot of different things. If these signings happened, it's because Dorontate Jones watched the tape, studied each guy and said, yes, I think I can make this work with each of these guys. Talk about Dietrich Wyze first and foremost, and then he's probably the biggest player on this resigning list here coming out this week. Only played two games in 2025 before suffering a season ending injury against the Green Bay Packers in that Thursday night loss, but even in that one-interfraction games that he played, we could see the impact he was making, setting that hard edge, helping that Washington Commanders run defense, get more stout, a little bit stronger inside the locker room.

22:43Even though you guys didn't get to see him on the field all season long, we got to see him in the locker room all year long. This dude spent most of his recovery time around the Washington Commanders doing his recovery things like that. I would just tell you, this is a man you would not have thought. This is a man who lost his entire season just two weeks into the year. You'd have thought he was having a probable caliper season the way he was going through there, uplifting people, always had a smile on his face. One of those things that goes beyond the level that you see on the field, and while some people kind of scoff at that kind of stuff, trust me, it matters. That's not the only reason you bring him back, of course, but that sub absolutely matters. As well, Dronte Jones is going to need those culture, carriers, glue guys, whatever you want to call it, to help him do what he's trying to do. Dietrich Wise, I've said it before in the show, so it should be no surprise. Absolutely wanted to come back to Washington and run it back, and now he gets the opportunity to do so. Drake Jackson, defensive and also coming back, second round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2022. Suffered a torn PCL severe knee injury in his second season in the NFL, only played three

23:49games last year, but again, being active at all for what he's been going through was a major milestone. I know some of you guys, like they brought him in and then he couldn't play for a while and I was kind of frontly. Why is he here? That's the belief that Peter's has in his future. I think it was really great as his rookie season didn't really get to start, was playing amongst a lot of stars, still was able to be productive, three sacks in this rookie year despite playing that rookie rotational role, not getting a lot of rhythm. All those things comes back his second season and through, I mean, he got injured in the eighth game of the year, but up until that point had already had three sacks who's already showing that growth that you want to see that guy winning stuff for the PCL and miss the rest of 2022, miss all of 2023. So or miss all of the sorry, miss the rest of 2023, his second season, miss all of 2024, join the commanders again in 2025 was able to get active, was able to complete a few games and again, just meant a lot for him and his future. So I can't promise you anything on him, but low risk, high reward because he's not costing

24:50the Washington commanders a lot of money. Don't have the figures, but I can just tell you he's not costing the Washington commanders a lot of money and he's someone that if he can return to form at all, you're going to get him at a bargain and then finally, Shy Tuddle, the defense attack of veterans, seven year veteran who arrived mid-year last year was with the Tennessee Titans on the season began. Look by the time he arrived, things weren't really going well. I can't tell you I did a lot of talking to Shy, there's a lot of people in the locker room. We finally found the one that we're going to talk about on this show that I didn't really talk to a whole heck of a lot, but he is a hardworking veteran known for being willing to stick his face in the fan, do the dirty work, be aggressive, doing things like that. So he's the kind of guy that you would love to have on any team as a member of your depth and that's exactly what he is. The thing about this is because I've had some all access every day, remember, is texting me some insiders, texting me wondering, like, what does this mean for free agency? It means nothing for free agency. None of these guys are going to prevent Adam Peters from going out there and striking whatever deal he wants to strike and do all these things that he wants to do. Locking them up, what it does is gives him a clearer picture of what he's got, who he's

25:53got, and that's going to help him when it comes time from Monday afternoon as he goes out there looking for some big fish, some mid-level fish, some smaller fish, whatever he's going to do. That's going to do it for today's episode. Next time on Lockdown Commanders, we will wrap up our mail bag series here this week, all leading into our positional group previews as we hit the weekend a lot still to talk about before Monday at noon when the opening go shooting period begins. So make sure you are subscribed to following along with Lockdown Commanders to get all the latest episodes. And if you never miss one, the everyday club was built for you, lockdowncomanders.supercast.com, promo code free agency to get one month free. You have until March 15th to get in on that party, just like so many have already, and I appreciate all of you who have already as well to the everydayers. I see you. I appreciate you every single day. And I thank you for coming through yet again today. Until next time, everybody out there, please stay safe, be kind. We will talk again real soon right here on Lockdown Commanders part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.