Sam Cosmi signed a four-year, $74 million contract extension with $45 million guaranteed earlier this summer to be a stalwart on the new Commanders offensive line, and it was the perfect cap to an offseason where he saw a whole lot of turnover within his team.
“I wanted to be prepared and focused on football, especially through training camp, so I left the business to the business people like my agent, and ignored it as much as I could,” Cosmi told Chris Russell on Friday. “I wanted to get it done before the season so we could focus on being here and doing something special, and I was happy and fortunate to get it done. I think everybody is really happy about that. It turned out really great.”
Now, Cosmi can focus on building chemistry with his new teammates, with whom he got his first win of the season on Sunday – although there were some hiccups along the way to learn from.
“We’re a new team trying to figure out our identity, so we learned a lot from Week 1 and even in the win there were some communication mistakes we had, especially in the red zone,” Cosmi said. “But, as we’re putting more time in together, I can tell we’re getting close to something special. I’m looking forward to that, and every week we’re gonna learn something new about this team.”
Cosmi pointed to how coherent the Bucs, who went to the playoffs last year, looked in Week 1, and knows that as much as the Commanders fan base (and the players, too) want to see a winner as soon as possible, it’s going to take some time, and there will be bumps in the road.
“It doesn’t come overnight, it takes time; we’re trying to do it faster and trying to put together something special, so were working each and every day to get to that point and to get used to each other,” Cosmi said. “But, there are things we can improve on, like those communication issues and penalties; they kill drives and opportunities in the red zone, but the next day we came in and talked about it and had some solutions. It’s all new, so each time we go out there, we’ll find solutions to problems that show up.”
The red zone issues at least, Cosmi chalked up to the crowd at Northwest Stadium being ‘extra geeked up’ for the first home game of the new era.
“Last Sunday it got kind of hard to hear in our red zone because fans were amped up, so the cadence wasn’t on point,” Cosmi said, but pointed to a solution: “If we ever back in that situation, let’s eliminate the noise and go silent count. Typically, we do that when we’re away in a loud environment, but it’s not usually a thing we have to do at home. But, fans were geeked up and it got loud, and we’ll obviously learn and adapt.”
Still, they got the W, and that’s what matters most in the end.
“It is really hard to win a game in the NFL; that phrase ‘Any Given Sunday’ is a true thing. It wasn’t a pretty win, but we got it done, and it’s one in the W column,” Cosmi said. “It’s big-time being able to do that, and fight through the mistakes we made to come out on top. We were happy about that, and we hadn’t won a game in our home stadium in quite some time, so it was special.”
And now they move on to Monday Night Football, which Cosmi says is ‘cool, but I treat it like any other game and try to keep calm and collected and not overhype it,’ even after one of the Bengals’ young DBs had some choice words about the Commanders running a ‘college offense.’
“We’re trying to, in a sense, really heighten Jayden’s strengths, and from that aspect I believe in the offense,” Cosmi said. “I think Kliff has a really good offense when it comes to scheme, and defenses don’t like to go against this kind of offense, especially with a QB who can get out of the pocket.
It’s not fun to prepare against, but to his point, I think Jayden has a lot more to show to everybody. It’s easier for us (having a mobile QB), in a sense, because in the back of your head, that timer of blocking keeps going because he can extend plays and make a big play. I’ve never had that, but I like it, and it’s cool to see what he can do with his feet.”