Since the Washington Commanders surprisingly released center Tyler Biadasz in February, fans have been waiting for general manager Adam Peters to make a move. All signs pointed to Washington wanting Tyler Linderbaum in free agency, but they weren’t expecting the Raiders to completely reset the market at the center position.
Throughout the offseason, Peters and head coach Dan Quinn expressed confidence in Nick Allegretti to replace Biadasz whenever they could. Allegretti, entering his eighth NFL season in 2026 and third in Washington, has mostly played guard in his NFL career. He did start two games last season at center, which was apparently enough to convince the Commanders he could handle the role on a full-time basis.
After not landing a center
in free agency and missing out on several in the 2026 NFL Draft, Washington finally picked a center in the sixth round: Matt Gulbin. While a solid prospect worth developing, no one believed Gulbin would be ready to step in and start as a rookie.
Then OTAs came and went; some of the veteran centers still available, players like Ethan Pocic and Lloyd Cushenberry, signed with other teams. Washington was serious about Allegretti. And Quinn even mentioned journeyman Julian Good-Jones as another player the Commanders trusted, as he competed with Allegretti.
While there was concern about the center position, no one was in panic mode. That was until Allegretti strained his calf on the first day of training camp. It became readily apparent that Good-Jones — who has two career NFL snaps — and Gulbin weren’t ready to be Washington’s center. While some of Gulbin’s struggles can be explained away, he’s shown promise this summer. Good-Jones not so much. The Commanders released Good-Jones during final cuts, but did re-sign him to the practice squad.
Allegretti returned to practice this week, and Washington is confident in him being ready for Week 1 with Gulbin as the No. 2 center. Still, fans were waiting for Peters to add a center this week after the 31 other teams finalized their cuts. They haven’t.
On Thursday, Peters joined “Grant and Danny” of 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C. Fans were in attendance for “An Evening with Adam Peters,” and he took questions. One question focused on the offensive line, specifically the center position. He doubled down.
“To answer your question, we don’t really listen to a whole lot outside the building,” Peters said. “It leads to bad decisions, I think. I really think you have to take a hard look at the decisions you make and make sure you’re doing everything you can to field the best team possible. With the center position, we felt really good with Nick, and still feel really good with Nick. I think part of the concern, which again, I love having the fan base that wants us to win and wants to be great because that's what we want, that's what everybody wants, and the city deserves.”
Peters again made it clear how the Commanders feel about Allegretti.
“We feel great about Nick. We feel, because he got hurt, I think that’s what kind of got people worried a little bit. Then we drafted Matt Gulbin in the sixth round; he’s been fantastic. He’s a guy we’d be comfortable with playing. And so now that Nick’s back healthy, he’s had three more practices, and he looks great. We took his rehab a little bit slow, just being on the cautious side because we weren’t playing any games. So now, this last week, we’ve prepped for Philly, and next week we’re prepping for Philly with two good starting-level centers and another on the practice squad who can fill in. We feel really good about it right now, and I think you’ll see that in Week 1.”
Center talk pic.twitter.com/j2xUISJ0ay
— Ben Standig (@BenStandig) September 4, 2026
Either Peters is that confident in this group, or he’s simply doubling down on how he’s mishandled the position all offseason.
Which one is it?
While some may disagree with some of Peters’ moves, or his relative lack of action at times, he made some valid points. Allegretti’s injury in training camp only increased fans’ angst. In less than two weeks, we’ll know if Peters is right or wrong.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders GM Adam Peters doubles down
