ASHBURN, Va. — Only 72 hours after celebrating the signing of veteran receiver Stefon Diggs, the Commanders lost five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil to a torn triceps, an injury that will keep him out for a good portion of the season, if not its entirety.

Washington has become accustomed to whiplash in recent years as it’s tried to crawl out of the doldrums of its past and build around quarterback Jayden Daniels. But the latest shift is especially painful; the Commanders gave up a haul to trade for Tunsil last year, watched him instantly become a leader of their offensive line, rewarded him with a two-year contract extension that made him the highest-paid left tackle in average value, and now have to reshuffle the O-line to fill the void about a month before the season opener.

“He’s the superstar player that’s not afraid to get coached or corrected or asked something,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “The thing I was probably most impressed by was how cool a teammate he has been. Like, his guys here, man, they love spending time with him. They love going down to this year where he’s training at to go spend time.”

Replacing a player of that caliber is a tall task anyway, but especially this late in the offseason. Washington may still add to the line, for depth if not more, but for now the plan is to turn to Brandon Coleman at left tackle, a source with direct knowledge of the team’s thinking told The Athletic.

Coleman, a former third-round pick out of TCU, is capable of playing all five spots on the line and started at left tackle for most of the 2024 season, when Washington made it to the NFC Championship Game after going 12-5 in the regular season.

The line that year fared decently, but much of Washington’s shortcomings were masked by Daniels, who had the finest season ever by a rookie quarterback.

Coleman allowed 30 pressures, including nine sacks, in 474 pass-blocking snaps that season, according to Pro Football Focus, then shifted inside to left guard when the team acquired Tunsil from the Houston Texans. But after only two starts inside, Coleman was benched and replaced by Chris Paul, who outplayed him to hold onto the spot for the remainder of the season. Coleman closed out the final four games of 2025 at left tackle when Tunsil was sidelined with shoulder and oblique injuries.

Coleman spent much of this offseason training with Tunsil at the University of Alabama, where he was immersed in Tunsil’s intense pre-camp regimen and worked with his personal strength and conditioning coach, nutritionist, chef and offensive line specialist.

“I think that’s kind of like what I was talking about last year,” Coleman said earlier in camp. “The steps I needed to take is that. There’s things that I have to sacrifice even more and let go of some stuff in the free time. There’s always something to do throughout the day and even at night. So just making sure that this is my life for the next six years, is football. This is the most important thing to me, and it has to be to make sure everything I do is for that.”

Moving Coleman back to left tackle allows Washington to keep Paul at left guard and Josh Conerly Jr. at right tackle, where he started last season as a rookie after playing on the left side at the University of Oregon.

Andrew Wylie would presumably remain a swing tackle and the team’s top reserve on the edges, though he, too, has shown enough versatility to shift inside if needed.

Nick Allegretti moved to center this year after the team released Tyler Biadasz, but has been out for most of camp because of a calf injury. Quinn hasn’t provided a clear timetable for Allegretti’s return, but has said he doesn’t expect the injury to be a long-term issue. Quinn did indicate that Allegretti and tight end John Bates (hamstring) would not participate in the team’s joint practice with the Dolphins on Wednesday.

Before Tunsil’s injury, Washington signed four offensive linemen — centers Trey Hill and Daniel Brunskill, guard Max Scharping and tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere — for competition and depth.

The Commanders also have veteran tackles Trent Scott and Foster Sarrell on the roster, but may also add from the pool of available free agents and scour the waiver wire after rosters are pared to their initial 53 on Aug. 30. Washington is seventh in the waiver order through Week 3 of the regular season.

Just under three months since that special night in May, Arsenal returned to the Emirates turf as Premier League champions to host Borussia Dortmund.

Those who were present for the 3-2 home defeat were treated to the sight of new signing, Bruno Guimaraes being presented on the pitch to a chorus of ‘Bruno!’ ahead of kick-off.

Dortmund took a two-goal lead courtesy of Samuele Inacio and Konstantino Karetsas, before Ethan Nwaneri pulled one back for Arsenal. Joane Gadou restored their two-goal lead before Viktor Gyokeres added another from the spot.

Here are the thoughts of Art de Roché from the Emirates Stadium.

Bruno Guimaraes was unveiled before kick-off (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

What will Odegaard’s role be this season?

Midfield is one of the most interesting areas of the Arsenal squad this season. With the addition of Guimaraes, the options at Arteta’s disposal offer different qualities at an elite level.

Off the back of his on-pitch presentation, the qualities of Guimaraes that Arteta is looking to exploit are: “Versatility to play in two different positions in relation to what we want or the opponent does. (He) has tremendous timing and intuition to win the ball back and progress plays very fast. He’s comfortable putting people through, moving between the lines, moving in behind. And then he’s a goal threat. He’s got a smell and a really good timing to get in the box. And he has the capacity to finish the actions.”

The Brazil international possessing such a varied skillset can allow this Arsenal midfield to function in so many different ways.

Add to that the sharpness of the returning club captain, Martin Odegaard, and how these players are set up and function together is a mouth-watering prospect.

Odegaard played 30 minutes, which has become customary for returning players this pre-season, but impressed nevertheless. At a time when Arsenal were not free-flowing, he was the one player threading passes in behind the Dortmund defence for Kai Havertz, Gyokeres and Dowman to chase.

(Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Secure in possession when necessary, the 28-year-old looked like the Odegaard who lit up the World Cup with Norway. His role in this season’s Arsenal midfield was always going to be of particular interest. Would he be used as a No 10, combining with Eberechi Eze like in the run-in, or would he return to a deeper, all-action role that got more out of him at the World Cup.

More game-time with returning players and new arrivals will be needed to truly assess that, but Arsenal’s captain looks in good shape.

What threat does Tzolis offer out wide?

On an afternoon that had the true feeling of pre-season, Arsenal’s wingers were the ones to provide much-needed impetus at critical moments.

Max Dowman and Christos Tzolis have been Arteta’s starting wingers throughout pre-season and could well be when Arsenal play against Manchester City in the Community Shield next week.

Dowman was the first to show flashes of inspiration, with intelligent touches and quick bursts in behind Maximillian Beier changing the picture of Arsenal’s attack within seconds. The 16-year-old created an opening for Viktor Gyokeres to hit the crossbar early on and won a free kick inches outside the penalty area in moments that most resembled a player ‘playing free’.

Tzolis grew into the game, and Arsenal will be thankful he did. After a lull in the first half, it was his tracking back and dribbling into the Dortmund box that lifted the spirits around the ground.

The Greek international’s willingness to A: take on his man and B: always look to either shoot or cross has stood out throughout pre-season and did so again this afternoon. At 2-0 down, it was his drive into the box and low left-footed cross that found Nwaneri to half the deficit. He then won the penalty that was scored by Gyokeres before making way later in the second half.

While Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze are set to return from their holidays next week, if they are not deemed ready to start in Arsenal’s opening fixtures, this pairing may be where their threat comes from.

Will returning players help iron out sloppy spells?

Arsenal have ambled through this pre-season at times.

They started strongly with a 4-1 win away to Girona, but their losses against Real Betis and Dortmund have been riddled with strange errors that are typical of pre-season matches.

This will partly be down to the number of regulars who are yet to return to action, with goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga not covering himself in glory while David Raya has been away. In a way, these moments have begged the question of whether Kepa would be best served as Arsenal’s No 2 over Illan Meslier or not.

There is an argument Meslier could challenge Kepa for the No 2 spot (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Outfield players have also been punished for a lack of urgency and awareness against opponents who look sharper.

That is why Arteta felt focus cannot solely go on the defensive actions that led to goals. “I wouldn’t just isolate it there,” Arteta said. “We conceded some poor goals the other day, some poor goals today. In the way we competed, especially. But that’s a very collective responsibility. So, we need to improve with the players that we have. And we want to improve for sure.”

Whether it is getting caught waiting for a ball rather than meeting it, or failing to anticipate pressure from an opponent, there are aspects of Arsenal’s last two performances that need ironing out.

Arteta will finally have a complete squad from Monday, August 10, however, so those improvements should be noticeable when Cesc Fabregas’ Como visit the Emirates on Wednesday, August 12.