the quintessential ‘next man up’
I was working on something completely unrelated this morning when I saw Ty Nsekhe’s name listed as a pending 2022 free agent. I was surprised.
I’ve long been a fan of Ty Nsekhe. Here’s what I wrote about him in 2017, when he was on the Redskins roster:
The lack of problems on the offensive line when players like Trent Williams or Morgan Moses are lost to injury or suspension (remember the first four games of last season?) is something that is easy to overlook.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ty Nsekhe — a talented swing tackle, and the Redskins resident non-barking dog. He is the quintessential ‘next man up’.
We don’t think about Nsekhe very much because he quietly does his job every time he’s called upon; and he gets called upon without warning when an ankle gets rolled up on or a knee starts to hurt. Nsekhe goes in the game — left tackle, right tackle — it doesn’t matter. He goes in and does his job for four plays or four weeks. The running game still works, and Kirk Cousins’ jersey stays clean.
A profile of Nsekhe from 2017:
Ty Nsekhe: the dog that didn’t bark
Nsekhe was a talented swing tackle when he played in Washington — a guy who was a borderline starter, but who couldn’t get on the field with Trent Williams and Morgan Moses in front of him. When he became a free agent in 2019, I think most Redskins fans were pleased for Nsekhe that he was able to get a “bag” by signing with the Buffalo Bills on a 2 year, $14.5m contract. He went on to play 25 games for the Bills, but only got one start. He saw the field quite a bit in ‘19, getting 359 snaps, but that number fell to 54 snaps in 2020.
When he hit free agency again, Nsekhe signed with the Cowboys for $1.7m, where he backed up La’el Collins at right tackle. Nsekhe appeared in 12 regular season games and one playoff game, getting offensive snaps in 6 of them, playing 145 snaps.
I have to say that I haven’t watched Nsekhe play over the past three seasons since he left Washington, so I’m going to rely on PFF for evaluation of his play.
In 4 seasons with the Redskins, Nseke’s PFF grades ranged from 60.3 to 78.3. In his three seasons with the Bills & Cowboys, his grades ranged from 65.2 to 80.3. His PFF grade for last season in Dallas was 72.5.
Whle PFF grades are not definitive, especially for offensive linemen, I think that this at least indicates that Nseke’s play has not fallen off in the three years since he left Washington.
I’m thinking that 37-year-old Ty Nsekhe could be just what the doctor ordered for the Washington Commanders. Nsekhe is an experienced tackle who can play on the left or the right, and he has two things in his favor: he’s a consistent and high-quality swing tackle, and he won’t cost much to sign (probably less than $2m per season). He seems like the kind of hard-working good locker room kind of guy that Ron Rivera should love.
Nsekhe could stay with the Cowboys, of course, and his former offensive coordinator from Buffalo, Brian Daboll, is now the head coach of the Giants, so if Nsekhe wants to keep playing, he’ll probably have some options, but, I for one, would be pleased if he wanted to return to the team that really helped him establish himself as an NFL player.
Ty Nsekhe’s road to the NFL was harder than most.
He spent 4 seasons in the Arena Football League, playing for the Corpus Christi Sharks (2009), Dallas Vigilantes (2010), Philadelphia Soul (2011), and the San Antonio Talons (2012).
His first shot a the NFL came when he had a cup of coffee with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012 before being signed to the Rams’ practice squad for the season.
Nsekhe was out of football during the 2013 season, but the Saints signed him to a future contract for the ‘14 season. Things didn’t work out with the Saints, and Nsekhe ended up in Canada, on the practice squad of the Montreal Alouettes.
And then, in 2015, Jay Gruden and the Washington Redskins came calling. The rest, as they say, is history. Nsekhe was called on to play frequently in place of Trent Williams and Morgan Moses because of suspensions or injuries, and ended up playing 1,287 offensive snaps for the Redskins offense, and a further 271 special teams snaps.
Nsekhe is the kind of guy I root for — an underdog who kept fighting until he established himself as a professional football player in the NFL. I’d love to see him finish his NFL career where it first took root — in Washington.
Nsekhe would provide veteran leadership and reliable depth on a team that needed its swing tackle to play a lot in 2021, and he should do it at a pretty economical price. I’d love to see Washington reunite with Ty Nsekhe.