So far in preseason, Roullier has played well. This play against the Ravens displays exactly what he’s all about in terms of pass protection.

Here, Roullier faces a nose tackle lined up directly over the top of him. Initially, Roullier allows the tackle to get under him, but doesn’t panic. Roullier calmly fights for hand placement, making sure he gets his hands inside on the chest of the defender. That enables him to control the tackle and slow down his initial burst. The tackle attempts to club away Roullier’s hands and burst past him, but Roullier keeps one hand on the defender and quickly shuffles his feet to cut off the rush. Roullier then sets a strong anchor to keep the defender in front of him as quarterback Colt McCoy delivers his throw.

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That’s a perfect example of the type of play Roullier made in college routinely. While he might lose initial leverage, he always fights well with his hands to ensure he can win back leverage and then has a great ability to anchor and re-anchor to recover when initially beaten. But being able to block a defender one-on-one is only part of playing center in the NFL. The center is often the free blocker who has to spot blitzers or stunts and slide one way or the other to help pick them up.

On this play, the Ravens bring a five-man rush, blitzing a defensive back off the right side of the Redskins offensive line while the two defensive lineman to that side stunt inside. Roullier slides to his right and picks up the defensive tackle stunting inside, which should enable right guard Tyler Catalina to also slide right and pick up the defensive end. Unfortunately, Catalina appears to have missed the call or confused his assignment as he fails to slide to his right and pick up the defender, who forces Nate Sudfeld to scramble. But from Roullier’s perspective, he did everything correctly.

From a pass protection standpoint, Roullier is capable of holding his own, it’s just a matter of how quickly he can get up to speed with understanding the scheme and making all the calls a center has to make. Against the Ravens, he showed that he perhaps still has some work to do in that regard.

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The Ravens stack the line of scrimmage with six defenders and send all six on the rush. The Redskins have six blockers in protection and should be able to pick it up. However, Roullier appears to make a mental error, sliding to his left to try to help the left guard, while the blitzer in the A-gap skips past him easily and lands a big hit on the quarterback.

It’s the kind of mistake to be expected by a rookie, but at the same time, a center can’t allow an A-gap rusher to run free and land a huge hit on the quarterback. It absolutely can’t happen in a preseason game with the starting quarterback stood behind him taking the hit. But on a positive note, I didn’t notice any mistakes of the same manner in the second preseason game against the Packers.

As a run blocker, it was believed Roullier might take some time to get up to speed. Not only does he have to improve his technique, he must learn all the different run schemes — zone, gap, power, sweeps, etc. — and learn all the different types of defensive fronts so he knows how to set the targets for each type of run. It’s a lot for a rookie to take on, but against the Packers, Roullier showed enough to be encouraged with his progress.

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Before the ball is snapped on this play, Roullier is clearly pointing at defenders and setting the targets for the blocking scheme. The Redskins run an outside zone play to their right side and Roullier has to work up to the second level to pick up a linebacker. He takes a few steps to his right, ensuring the right guard has his block secured before working up to the linebacker on the second level. He reaches the linebacker and begins to drive him back as running back Samaje Perine follows in behind him for a solid gain.

It’s not just a good play because he was able to reach the linebacker on the second level, but because he correctly targeted the run, something the Redskins had issues with last season. Later on, he had another good run play.

Here, Sudfeld makes a call and hand signal at the line of scrimmage, after which Roullier resets the target with a clear point to a linebacker. Once he snaps the ball, Roullier works in combination to secure the defensive tackle. Roullier takes over the block, allowing the guard to work up and block the linebacker Roullier had previous targeted. Roullier then drives the defensive down the line toward the sideline, washing him completely out of the play.

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That exactly how the zone scheme is designed to work, with combination blocks that result in defensive linemen getting moved out and linebackers getting reached. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Roullier against the Packers. There was the odd occasion where he struggled to reach the linebacker on the second level.

This time, Roullier is the blocker assigned with working to the second level to block the Mike (middle) linebacker. However, he spends too much time ensuring the left guard has control of his block, making him late to work up to the second level, allowing the Mike to run past him to the edge. Fortunately for Roullier, Perine is able to bail him out by bouncing off the attempted tackle, but it’s still a play Roullier will need to learn from.

It will be interesting to see just how Roullier fares against the Bengals starting defense. He will need to be confident enough to set targets and make protection calls. The Redskins could help him out by simplifying their scheme to just zone, as they have done for many of the snaps Roullier has played so far in preseason. With Shawn Lauvao and Brandon Scherff next to him, those two could take on some additional responsibilities to help him too. But it’s a great opportunity for Roullier to show he’s up to the task and can be counted on when needed.