Hogs Haven
The Washington Commanders’ 2025 first-round selection, Josh Conerly Jr., made his NFL debut this past Friday night against the New England Patriots. Leading up to the exhibition game, Conerly Jr. had mixed reviews of his training camp practices as he transitioned from left to right tackle. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury mentioned in a press conference that his transition would take time, and beat reporters covering practices daily noticed his ups and downs from a technical aspect, particularly as he adjusted to the right side. The outlook for Conerly Jr. took a step in the right direction following the Patriots game, as he flashed in the run and pass game.
Here are a few plays from Conerly Jr. that stood out during the 22 snaps he took against the Patriots.
Conerly Jr. acts as the seal blocker on New England’s three-technique lineman. He shows good play strength working this combination block with Tyre Phillips. He is able to displace the defensive lineman out of the B-gap while keeping his eyes on the second-level, where his job is to seal the linebacker away from the gap. Unfortunately, the rest of the play was out of his control, and running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt never made it to his side.
As a backside blocker on this zone run, Conerly Jr. had to seal off backside pursuit, which was the Patriots’ 4i lineman. Conerly showcased his initial quickness off the line of scrimmage, as well as good hat placement and hip fluidity to turn and seal off the defender. He was able to stalemate the defender’s power with good grip strength and hand placement while engaged, and good overall functional strength to keep him away from the play.
As a playside blocker, Conerly Jr. showed good acceleration off the line of scrimmage and quickly met the defensive back on the second level. Further, he took an excellent angle at the first level, helping kick out the edge defender before self-locating his second-level target. From an athleticism and processing standpoint, this was a very good rep by the rookie. However, Conerly Jr. must begin sustaining blocks at a better rate beyond the first level. In some instances where he had good reps against the Patriots in space, he was unable to sustain the block against the defender.
Conerly Jr. showed a good feel for space on this screen for Luke McCaffrey. He showed good foot speed and tempo while approaching the linebacker on the next level.
Josh Conerly Jr. has not won the starting job off of one performance, and he has plenty of time to continue in his development as a right tackle. But Friday’s performance was promising, and I’m sure it gave his coaches added optimism as they gear up for their next game against the Cincinnati Bengals next Monday.
