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Wylie, O-Line Takes Protecting Howell 'Very Personally'

Originally posted on FanNation Washington Football
By Nathaniel Marrero | Last updated 9/12/23

The Washington Commanders' offensive line was an important talking point throughout the offseason.

After signing Nick Gates and Andrew Wylie, plus drafting Ricky Stromberg and Braedan Daniels, could the unit improve after allowing the seventh-most sacks last season?

On Sunday, things didn't look any better compared to last year in the Commanders' 20-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Sam Howell was sacked six times and seemingly had a defense in his face nearly every time he dropped back to pass. He also fumbled one of the times he was sacked, which led to a touchdown in the second quarter and gave Arizona the lead.

Six sacks is the second-most allowed, only trailing the New York Giants.

For Wylie and the offensive line, protecting Howell is of utmost importance to them and the team.

“We take that very personally up front," Wylie said. "Plain and simple, we’ve gotta do better. We’ve gotta lock down our assignments, but it all starts tomorrow, getting in that film room and figuring out what we need to do better and then game plan starts for week two. We take that very personally. We love keeping our guy clean. We didn’t necessarily do our best job of that tonight.”

There's no doubt that Washington's (1-0) offensive line can improve from week to week. Whether they will, given the teams they'll face in the upcoming weeks, is a completely different question.

If a rebuilding Cardinals (0-1) team can consistently get after Howell, the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 24 and the Philadelphia Eagles the following week, should be more than capable of doing the same thing. With those two teams on the horizon, Washington's offensive line won't have much time to get things in order.

The Commanders head on the road on Sunday to face the Denver Broncos (0-1) at 4:25 p.m. ET at Empower Field at Mile High.

This article first appeared on FanNation Washington Football and was syndicated with permission.

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