When Commanders Wire handed out year-end awards for the 2025 Washington Commanders, we voted left tackle Laremy Tunsil as the team’s MVP. It was an easy call. Tunsil played in 14 games for the Commanders in 2025, and he was dominant in pass protection. It didn’t end there, though, as Tunsil was equally effective as a run blocker. At 31 years old, Tunsil still appears to be in the prime of his career.

ESPN’s Seth Walder recently created his version of the 100 most valuable players in the NFL from 1-100 in the 2025 season. Tunsil was the only Washington Commander on the list. He was ranked pretty high, too. The 10-year veteran came in at No. 24.

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In case you were wondering, the top seven players were quarterbacks. There was only one offensive lineman ranked ahead of Tunsil in this exercise: Denver left tackle Garrett Bolles. While Bolles is a good player, almost no one would take him over Tunsil, which shows this isn’t a perfect exercise.

Here’s a detailed explanation from Walder on how he arrived at his top 100.

To evaluate players, I rely on a variety of sources — statistics and quantitative metrics, awards such as the All-Pro team, and feedback from NFL front office personnel and colleagues at ESPN. One of my favorite parts about football is that player evaluation is far from a settled science. Every season, including this one, someone I trust in the league will tell me I have a player ranked far too high and another person I have similar trust in will tell me that same player is ranked far too low.

In this exercise, we are measuring player value relative to average at respective positions. So we will almost certainly have quarterbacks at the very top — it is the highest-leverage position — but also cannot have more than 16 on the list. This also means we will have more edge rushers than centers, for example. And this is an entirely descriptive exercise about only the 2025 season.

Amazingly, Tunsil did not even make the Pro Bowl or receive All-Pro recognition. That had more to do with Washington’s lack of success than Tunsil’s play. Tunsil’s missing the final three games wasn’t serious. He suffered an oblique injury in Week 15 and likely could have returned, but with the Commanders struggling, they wisely played it safe with Tunsil.

Did we mention Tunsil wants to be paid? He has one year remaining on his contract and has shown no signs of slowing down. General manager Adam Peters understands that Tunsil deserves to be paid and wants to get it done sooner rather than later. The Commanders cannot afford another Terry McLaurin situation hanging over this offseason.

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One year ago, Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels ranked No. 4 in Walder’s top 100. Part of the reason that Peters acquired Tunsil was to continue surrounding Daniels. Unfortunately, injuries limited the 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year to just seven games in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: How valuable was Laremy Tunsil in 2025?