Chris
Paul.
Chris
Paul.
Tulsa· 6'4"· 323 lb· 4.89s 40
"A two-star Houston recruit with Nigerian presidential lineage and an R and B side career who started all thirty games at Tulsa, then turned the 230th pick into a Washington starting left guard job."Pre-draft read
A thick, long-armed interior blocker who plays with more power than fluidity. At 6-3 7/8 and 323 pounds with 33 5/8-inch arms and 26 bench reps, Paul anchors against bull rushers and has the reach to lock on before a defender gets into his chest, the trait that carried a two-star recruit to a Senior Bowl invitation.
His athletic testing is what kept him in the seventh round. A 4.89 forty, 4.83 shuttle and 7.74 three-cone are below the standard for guards asked to pull or climb, and his 27-inch vertical confirms the lack of lower-body explosion. He is at his best in a phone booth, driving off the ball in a confined space, and he gets exposed when a scheme asks him to move laterally in space against quicker interior rushers.
A gap and duo run scheme that keeps its guards attached to double teams and vertical combinations instead of pulling them across the formation.
Year 1: swing interior backup and jumbo package body. Ceiling: a multi-year starting left guard in a power-based front.
An outside zone offense that asks him to reach a three-technique and climb to the second level, which his shuttle and cone times say he cannot do.
Washington's power-heavy run game with a mobile quarterback is close to the ideal environment for his skill set.
Tulsa offensive line vs. Ohio State defense (2021)
His unit against the best front he faced in his final college season.
Tulsa's Chris Paul emotional getting the call from Washington
Draft-day footage of the two-star recruit hearing his name at 230.
Marcus Mariota runs QB power behind pulling guard Chris Paul
His 2025 starting work in Washington's power run game.
Paul's background is unlike anyone else's in the class. Born in Houston, he is the grandson of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Nigerian head of state who was assassinated in 1966, and the older brother of Patrick Paul, who would become a second-round Miami Dolphins tackle in 2024. He also records R and B music under the name The Seventh.
On the field he was overlooked. A two-star recruit out of Jersey Village High School, he enrolled at Tulsa in 2017 and spent five years in the program, earning a bachelor's degree in computer information systems in May 2021 before playing out his final season. He appeared in 30 games for the Golden Hurricane and started every one of them, including all 10 in his last year, which is the kind of consistency that gets an American Athletic Conference lineman noticed.
The Senior Bowl gave him his stage. Paul played for the American team in the 2022 game in Mobile, and evaluators walked away with a clear picture: a heavy, long, strong blocker whose arms and anchor were legitimately NFL tools, whose testing numbers said he would never be a mover, and whose best professional home was at guard in a scheme that let him play downhill. Washington had the 230th pick and took the tools.
- 01
Excellent length for a guard
33 5/8-inch arms and a 6-9 5/8 wingspan let him initiate contact before defenders can reach his frame.
- 02
Real anchor strength
26 bench reps and a 323-pound frame that holds ground against bull rushers in a confined space.
- 03
Every college appearance was a start
30 games and 30 starts at Tulsa, including all 10 of them in his final season with the Golden Hurricane.
- 04
Senior Bowl validation
earned an American team invitation from a Group of Five program and held up against better competition.
- 05
Position flexibility inside
the frame and anchor let a staff move him between guard spots without changing his technique.
- 01
Poor athletic testing across the board
4.89 forty, 4.83 shuttle and 7.74 three-cone are all below the guard threshold.
- 02
Limited lower-body explosion
a 27-inch vertical and 9-1 broad jump explain why he struggles to generate movement on contact.
- 03
Ineffective in space
pulling, climbing to linebackers and reaching on wide zone are all outside his comfort zone.
- 04
Group of Five competition
the AAC defensive linemen he handled weekly do not approximate NFL interior pass rushers.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.89sp50
- Vertical
- 27inp50
- Broad jump
- 109inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.74sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.83sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Tulsa | 10 |
| Career | — | 30 |
Offensive linemen accumulate no individual statistics, so this table carries only participation. The verified figures are his career totals of 30 games with 30 starts at Tulsa and the 2021 line of 10 games and 10 starts. Tulsa's own database does not publish a complete year-by-year participation breakdown for his 2017 through 2020 seasons, and those rows are therefore omitted entirely rather than reconstructed from estimates or filled with zeros, which would falsely read as verified non-participation.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Late-round interior lineman who started for multiple teams as a dependable stopgap.
Heavy, low-athleticism guard who became a long-time starter on strength and consistency alone.
Washington interior draft pick from the same era whose career never produced a starting run.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Washington signed him to a four-year rookie deal on May 6, 2022 and let him develop quietly, giving him his first career start in the final game of his rookie season. He lost the 2023 left guard competition to Saahdiq Charles, then took the job in Week 8 when Charles went on injured reserve, and that pattern repeated itself: available, durable and ready whenever the depth chart broke.
The job eventually became his. Starting in Week 3 of the 2025 season the Commanders installed him as the left guard over Brandon Coleman, and he played all 17 regular-season games with 15 starts. Washington re-signed him on March 19, 2026 to a one-year, $3 million contract and named him the starting left guard again for 2026. Through 2025 he had 34 games and 23 starts. The one moment he would take back came in Week 2 of 2026 against Dallas, when on the last play before halftime he stepped on Jayden Daniels' foot as the quarterback dropped back, sending Daniels to the ground and causing a dislocated left elbow. A seventh-round guard who became a starter on a playoff team is an unambiguous win at this point in the draft.