Five Redskins players who received votes of confidence in the draft
By Ian Cummings
No. 5 – Redskins C Chase Roullier
Most people were in agreement before the 2019 NFL Draft that Chase Roullier was good. But some sites, such as Walter Football, thought the opposite. Walter Football labelled Roullier as the worst center in football at one point, and mocked a center to Washington in Round 1. The Redskins don’t seem to agree with that assessment.
When the draft finally came around, however, the Redskins left the center position untouched, instead taking two interior linemen in the middle rounds, to both serve as depth and compete for the open job at left guard.
Ross Pierschbacher has experience at center, giving him versatility as a reserve player. But his acquisition does not put Roullier’s job in danger. In fact, the Redskins acquisition of Pierschbacher, and not a higher-tier center, confirms that the center job is indeed Roullier’s, and it’s a position he’s not close to losing. He played all possible snaps in 2018, only allowing seven hurries on 824 snaps at center (Per Pro Football Focus). If you were to convert that into a rate, Roullier allowed pressure on less than one percent of his snaps. And of those seven hurries, only one culminated in a sack.
It makes sense that the Redskins would have this much confidence in Roullier. The Wyoming product has grown from a sixth-round backup to a reliable starter on the interior. He started all sixteen games last season, and now, entering just his third-year, he’s hoping to attain some accolades for his consistent play. Because the Redskins have noticed, he’ll get his chance.