Laremy Tunsil Injury: Commanders Lose Their Left Tackle

Laremy Tunsil allowed two sacks on 802 snaps last season and posted the second-best pass-blocking grade among 89 qualified tackles, per PFF. On Monday, Dan Quinn confirmed he is having surgery on a torn triceps, and Washington's plan to protect Jayden Daniels went with him.

The Laremy Tunsil injury happened in Saturday's practice. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and Steve Wyche reported the torn triceps that day and said he would miss at least a significant portion of the regular season, with surgery likely. Quinn confirmed the surgery Monday and named the replacement.

For a team that watched its quarterback miss 10 games last year, this is the worst possible non-quarterback injury on the roster.

Laremy Tunsil Injury: What Washington Actually Loses

Tunsil is a five-time Pro Bowler who signed a two-year, $60.2 million extension in March 2026. He arrived from Houston in a March 2025 trade specifically to fix the blind side.

The 2025 production backs the price. Per PFF, Tunsil played 802 snaps, allowed 15 total pressures including two sacks and two quarterback hits, earned an 88.9 pass-blocking grade that ranked second among 89 qualified tackles, and finished sixth overall at the position at 84.7.

The context makes it starker. PFF's analysis of the original trade noted Washington's left tackles allowed 10 sacks and 57 pressures in 2024 alone, while Tunsil had surrendered 10 sacks and 65 total pressures across the three prior seasons combined. That is one player absorbing an entire position group's worth of failure.

Brandon Coleman Gets the Job

Quinn said Monday that Brandon Coleman takes over left tackle duties, per NFL.com.

Worth noting the reporting moved. NFL.com's Saturday story on the injury listed Andrew Wylie as a candidate to swing over to left tackle with Josh Conerly Jr. at right tackle, and mentioned Coleman as an option who had been used at guard this offseason. Quinn's Monday answer settled it on Coleman.

Coleman is not an unknown quantity, which cuts both ways. A 2024 third-round pick, he started 12 games at left tackle as a rookie and all three playoff games on Washington's run to the NFC Championship. He moved inside to guard in 2025 after the Tunsil trade and the Josh Conerly Jr. pick, then started three more games at left tackle when Tunsil was out late last season.

PFF's read on the rookie tape was mixed: three games allowing zero pressures on 30 or more snaps, but five games with a pass-blocking grade below 50.0. That is the range Washington is now living inside for however long this lasts.

The Jayden Daniels Variable

Washington went 5-12 in 2025. Daniels played seven games and missed 10 with a knee sprain, a hamstring strain and an elbow dislocation that was later aggravated. He threw for 1,262 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions before being shut down.

Every projection of a Commanders bounce-back rests on Daniels staying upright for something close to a full season. The single largest structural input into that projection just changed.

Betting and DFS Impact

Three things this moves.

1. Any Commanders number you saw before Saturday was priced with Tunsil in the lineup. Season win total, division price and conference futures were all set on a roster that included a top-five left tackle. If the number has not moved since Aug. 8, that is not a value spot, it is a stale one. Check the current price and the date on any preseason article quoting a win total. 2. Daniels' passing props get harder, not just smaller. Pressure rate is the input that connects to sack props, rushing attempts and completion percentage all at once. A quarterback under more duress scrambles more, which cuts against passing yards and toward rushing yards. Splitting those two markets is more interesting than fading the total. 3. The return timeline is unpriced because nobody has published one. "At least a significant portion of the regular season" is deliberately vague, and no week number has been reported. Anyone quoting you a specific return date right now is guessing.

For fantasy, the Washington pass-catchers are the second-order effect. Fewer clean pockets means fewer deep shots, which compresses the ceiling on the outside receivers more than on the tight end or the back out of the backfield.

What to Watch Next

Watch three things in order. First, whether Washington adds a veteran tackle, because free agent tackles are available in August and a team that just lost a five-time Pro Bowler is the obvious buyer. Second, how Coleman looks in preseason Week 1, which runs Aug. 13 to 15. Third, a real timeline once the surgery is done, because "significant portion" could mean six games or twelve, and the futures market cannot price the difference until somebody says it out loud.

For the wider camp picture, see our NFL preseason Week 1 schedule breakdown and the Zay Flowers extension. The original injury report is at NFL.com. Chad AI tracks every line move, win total and player prop on this news inside the StatSniper app, on the NFL daily picks page and the AI sports picks hub.

FAQ

What is the Laremy Tunsil injury? A torn triceps suffered in Saturday's practice. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and Steve Wyche reported it, and head coach Dan Quinn confirmed Monday that Tunsil will undergo surgery.

How long will Laremy Tunsil be out? No specific timeline has been reported. NFL Network said he will miss at least a significant portion of the regular season.

Who replaces Laremy Tunsil at left tackle? Dan Quinn said Monday that Brandon Coleman takes over left tackle duties, per NFL.com. Coleman started 12 games there as a rookie in 2024 plus three playoff games, and started three more for an injured Tunsil late in 2025. He played guard in 2025 and moves back outside now.

Does this change the Commanders' 2026 outlook? It changes the input every projection rested on. Jayden Daniels missed 10 games in 2025 and Washington finished 5-12, so pass protection was the pivot point for any bounce-back case.

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