One X post by Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic on Wednesday sent many Washington Commanders fans into full-blown panic mode.
At Washington’s joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens in Owings Mills, Maryland, Jhabvala posted the following:
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen the Commanders’ offense in years. Inoperable offensive line.”
Several in attendance posted similar thoughts about Washington’s offensive line, just not as strongly worded. Around one hour later, Jhabvala quoted her post with another message, noting that the Commanders were also playing with the combination of rookies sixth-rounder Matt Gulbin and journeyman Julian Good-Jones at center, and “mostly Good-Jones and Tanoa Togiai at right guard.” Togiai is an undrafted rookie.
It was
too late. Jhabvala’s X post went viral, and national media picked it up, questioning whether the Commanders’ 2026 season was already over before it began. If the initial post had provided context, it might not have been such a big story.
Former Washington Redskins tight end Logan Paulsen had a message for fans on Thursday: relax.
“I’m not saying they shouldn’t feel some type of way, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel some type of way, like, I guess what I’m saying though is like they obviously went into this event, treating it a little bit differently,” Paulsen told “Grant and Danny” of 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
“If this was Week 1, like, and we have to play a game, you know who’s playing right guard for me? [Andrew] Wylie’s playing right guard for me, or Trent Scott. And they were not playing those positions. So, they were obviously using this as an opportunity to evaluate Gulbin, evaluate Good-Jones in new roles and kinda say, ‘Hey, where is our actual interior depth if we had to play a game tomorrow?’ And so, yes, like that is the point of practice. That is the point of a joint practice is to kind of help you identify where the roster is at versus other really good defenses. So, yes, I understand. Be concerned, be upset if you want to. That’s totally fine in my opinion. But I do think there is some context there that kind of would say, ‘Hey, maybe this isn’t that big of a deal if we had to play a game tomorrow. The offensive line, even with Sam Cosmi out, would look drastically different.”
There’s that word again: context. Paulsen is correct. While it may have looked bad on the field, Washington chose to put younger players in those higher-leverage spots for a reason. To see if they could handle it if the Commanders had to call on them this season.
What happened in a joint practice doesn’t indicate what will happen during the season. Fans have every right to be concerned, especially with how GM Adam Peters handled the center position this offseason. It’s not that he missed on Tyler Linderbaum, or even gave Nick Allegretti the job. It’s because Peters didn’t protect the team in case Allegretti didn’t work out at center, or he suffered an injury. On the first day of training camp, Allegretti suffered a calf injury and has missed virtually all of training camp. That’s led to angst among the fan base, and Jhabvala’s X post didn’t help.
The Commanders will obviously be seeking offensive line depth over the next couple of days as they must trim their roster from 90 to 53 players by Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET. But, as Paulsen said, things may not always appear as bad as they initially seem.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Former Washington TE has message for Commanders' fans regarding O-Line
