Left guard Chris Paul got the news he won the competition and would be starting at left guard in Washington’s Week 3 game against the Las Vegas Raiders “earlier to mid-week.” Although the 2022 seventh-round draft pick hadn’t started a game since Week 15 of the 2023 season, he remained confident in his skills and knew his time would come with continued work.
“It was definitely sort of like, this is a go-time moment and just sort of reminding myself that I’m built for this and I belong here,” Paul said.
Aside from Paul stepping in, the Commanders also moved Andrew Wylie from right tackle to the right guard spot to support rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. The risks involved with the changes paid off across the board — the offensive line put up a nearly perfect stat line against Las Vegas. According to PFF, Washington’s offensive line had zero sacks, two hurries and just two pressures in the win.
Paul contributed immensely to the offensive line’s success against the Raiders, which in turn led Washington to a 41-24 victory. He was the second-highest graded offensive linemen for Washington, finishing with an overall PFF grade of 86.0 behind All-Pro left tackle Laremy Tunsil (88.0). Over the course of 26 pass-blocking snaps, he didn’t allow a single sack, pressure, quarterback hit, or hurry.
“It was a blessing, an absolute major opportunity for me,” Paul said of his performance against the Raiders. “I just definitely saw a lot of growth, and I saw a lot of the work that I intentionally put in this offseason come to fruition. I just look forward to growing even more and identifying vulnerabilities in my game, identifying the strengths in my game and expressing those.”