It was no secret Nick Allegretti struggled in Kliff Kingsbury’s gap-centric scheme in 2024, and his play could, at best, be described as up and down. He was considered a possible cut candidate headed into this offseason as his cap hit escalated in the third year of his contract. Following the release of Tyler Biadasz, the team ended any such speculation by restructuring Nick’s contract and making him the presumptive starter at the center position. The addition of Matt Gulbin in the sixth round of this year’s
draft is more of a vote of confidence in Allegretti than representation of a significant challenger for the starting role.
Last Friday, Barry Svrluga of the Athletic published an article detailing what we learned about the Commanders new offense in minicamp and Allegretti confirmed the scheme shift fans and analysts have been discussing all offseason.
Under-center snaps with some wide zone — with some pulling — I’ve done it before,” said Nick Allegretti, who is moving from guard to center. “But it’s gonna be a bigger part of the bulk of that offense. I’m just getting out in space.”
Will a shift to zone-heavy scheme improve Allegretti’s chances of succeeding at the center position for the Washington Commanders? In this article, we will look at what we currently know about Allegretti’s abilities at the pivot, and how his skill set might mesh with a zone-blocking scheme.
Football IQ
Playing center requires a high football IQ. The position processes complex defensive alignments on the fly, calls out blocking assignments, and delivers the ball to the quarterback smoothly and consistently. None of this changes with a shift in scheme, but even Allegretti’s most ardent detractors are hard-pressed to question his ability here. During the Commanders 2024 playoff run, Nick called the protections for backup center Michael Deiter and Sam Cosmi recently confirmed the former Kansas City guard’s ability to process the necessary information.
He’s a smart dude and you’ve got to be pretty smart to play center,” Sam Cosmi said of Allegretti. “I always say if you can play guard really well, you can play center so he was able to do it in the 2024 season the whole year. I have full and utter confidence in his ability to play center at a high level.”
To top it off, Allegretti tied for the second-highest Wonderlic score in the 2019 draft with a forty-two. The average score for centers is twenty-five.
Calling the protections is a key component of the center’s responsibilities and Allegretti should be able to handle it regardless of the blocking scheme the Commanders offense chooses to employ.
Run Game
This is where the scheme change really makes a difference. While the 6’4″, 310-pound Allegretti might have a mauler’s attitude, he struggled to generate movement at the point of attack in a gap scheme. A review of his snaps filling in at the center position to close out the season shows a mixed bag performance-wise.
You can see Nick looks stronger in zone concepts and shows the ability to get to the second level but struggles to line up blocks on the move at times. He also shows some ability to move laterally but does not look especially quick or agile when doing so, which is consistent with his RAS score.
These clips need to be taken with a grain of salt, as the backup guard was pressed into service on short notice versus Cowboys defensive tackle Quinnen Williams (#92) and didn’t play against the full complement of Eagles starters in Week 18.
To get a better idea of his overall ability in a zone scheme it would be helpful to take a look at him in some other situations at the center position. Unfortunately, tape of Allegretti at center isn’t particularly easy to find as he was infrequently pressed into service for the Chiefs at the position and according to him, ” played six or seven games (at center) in college and then was the number two (center) all four years.” However, the 2019 East-West Shrine game gave him a chance to showcase his skills at center and his performance there was one of the reasons the Chiefs drafted him.
Matt Lane of SB Nation sister site Arrowhead Pride covered some of those snaps in his post-draft film review of Allegretti. In this first clip, Allegretti is at center working in a wide zone run with a free release to the second level.
Here you can see Allegretti’s athletic ability to get to the second level which demonstrates plus vertical movement skills. He shows a good understanding of zone concepts, driving the linebacker out of the play to create a cutback lane. Regardless of scheme, Allegretti always plays with a nasty demeanor and has a powerful grip which helps him finish plays when he latches on to defenders. You would like to see him get to the reach block here, but part of the reason he doesn’t is the linebacker overpursues which creates the opportunity to drive him out of the play. All in all, this a solid rep in an outside zone scheme by Allegretti.
The second clip highlights Nick’s ability to cover space in the open field. Here he works to the far hash mark on a screen pass.
Allegretti has some trouble disengaging from his blocker after selling the pass. This puts him under the gun to provide support on the outside. He manages to cover the necessary ground to intercept the linebacker and, while you would like to see better positioning, does enough to allow the running back to gain additional yards. Maybe not an impressive rep, but a successful one.
It may seem odd to use film from several years ago to evaluate a player’s fit for a current scheme change, but zone-blocking is about quickness, timing, and movement skills, most of which are innate by the time a player reaches the NFL level. The word that springs to mind when evaluating Allegretti’s movement skills is stiff. Lane also uses the term in his review, going so far as to briefly flirt with the term clunkiness. Nick slimmed down for the all-star game to improve mobility, but from his film at the end of 2025, you can see he is not what you would describe as a “fluid” mover. Still, during his time in the NFL, Allegretti has improved his technique, minimized wasted steps, and brought the toughness and effort necessary to succeed in the run game. My evaluation is he will be slightly better at run blocking in a zone-heavy scheme, but still lacks the desired movement skills to be above average. More under-center looks should give Allegretti additional time to reach his landmarks in the run game, which should also help.
Pass Protection
Teams use different forms of pass protection, but these are less heavily scheme-centric and can be mixed based on what the defense is showing. At the guard position, Allegretti’s lack of quick lateral ability meant he really struggled with both quickness and power from defenders in pass protection. Here is a clip from one of Mark Bullock’s film reviews on the team’s offensive struggles during last season.
Allegretti has help on the inside with Biadasz that he should lean on, but he allows Parsons to explode by him on the outside. A jab step to the inside freezes Nick, and he doesn’t have the mobility to recover when Parsons breaks the other way. A move to center could help mitigate some of the issues we saw in pass protection during the 2024 season. While Allegretti did get beat for 1 quarterback and 1 hurry for a 7.1% pressure rate versus the Cowboys, he also had a nice stunt pickup and allowed no pressures the following week versus the Eagles. Nick will struggle against power, but he has enough anchor to slow down the rush and enough technique to compensate for his shorter arms. In another film review from Mark Bullock, you can see how Allegretti uses the defender’s aggressive rush to pull them off balance.
Again, I’m not seeing a lot to indicate Nick will reach a new level in pass protection headed into his eighth NFL season, but there is enough to believe he might be able to get the job done. Of concern is the heavy slate of top-level defensive tackles he will face in the NFC East. Thankfully, the Giants traded away Dexter Lawrence, but Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, and the aforementioned Quinnen Williams are all on the season schedule twice. Hopefully Blough’s utilization of designed rollouts and play-action will help slow the defensive line.
Bottom Line
Fair or not, any current evaluation of Nick Allegretti at the center position includes a comparison to Tyler Biadasz. When it comes to calling protections, there hasn’t been any official word from the team regarding Tyler’s ability in this aspect of the game, but the Commanders coaching staff has been effusive in their praise for Allegretti. While Nick may see an uptick in the run game with the scheme change, there is no question that Tyler Biadasz is the more athletic of the two and would easily be able to meet the demands of a zone-blocking scheme as evidenced by his signing with the Chargers and new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel.
Tyler was not entirely effective in pass protection last season despite some gaudy statistics in the sacks allowed department. Biadasz played over 900 offensive snaps for the Commanders over two seasons, allowing four total sacks and no quarterback hits.
A deeper dive into the numbers shows that the majority of Tyler’s allowed sacks came in 2025 (3 out of 7 total sacks) with numerous QB hurries. From Hogs Haven’s Stats and Snaps series:
Tyler Biadasz allowed 1 sack and 1 hurry. His 7.4% Pressure Rate allowed is more than twice the acceptable limit for iOL. Ideally, a starting center should be under 3%. This has been a consistent theme in the last 6 games for Biadasz.
It is hard to say if Allegretti will represent a clear upgrade over last year’s starting center, but the new scheme should at least help, if not completely change his performance. It is clear there are plenty of people in the building that believe in his ability to get the job done at the pivot in 2026. One of the most important has seen his abilities firsthand, David Blough lined up under center as one of the quarterbacks for the East team in the 2019 Shrine Game. Hopefully, the new offensive coordinator can help Allegretti succeed as a starter several years after taking snaps from him on the football field.
