Chris Paul starting left guard, sounds pretty good to Chris Paul. The seventh-round pick out of Tulsa hadn’t started a game since Week 15 of 2023. This week, he’s officially Washington’s starting left guard.
A Rough Start to the Season
Brandon Coleman opened 2025 as Washington’s starting left guard, but the results were shaky. Through two weeks, the offensive line allowed 33 pressures, six sacks, and 23 quarterback hits on Jayden Daniels combined. Something had to give.
Head coach Dan Quinn didn’t hesitate. “We really made a competition, the biggest part of it,” Quinn said. “We changed both spots at guard with Nick and Brandon.” Paul got the call to start at left guard for Washington’s Week 3 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, alongside a matching move that shifted Andrew Wylie inside to right guard.
“I Belong Here”
For a player who hadn’t started a game in nearly two years, the moment carries real weight.
“It was definitely sort of like, this is a go-time moment and just sort of reminding myself that I’m built for this and I belong here,” Paul said.
He backed it up immediately. Washington’s offensive line allowed zero sacks and just two pressures against the Raiders, powering a 41-24 win. Paul finished with an 86.0 PFF grade, second on the team behind only All-Pro left tackle Laremy Tunsil. Over 26 pass-blocking snaps, he didn’t allow a single pressure, hit, hurry, or sack.
“It was a blessing, an absolute major opportunity for me,” Paul said afterward. “I just definitely saw a lot of growth, and I saw a lot of the work that I intentionally put in this offseason come to fruition.”
Off the Field
Off the field, Paul carries an unusual family story. He’s the grandson of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who served as Nigeria’s head of state for a few months in 1966 before being assassinated in a counter-coup. His parents immigrated from Nigeria to Houston, where Paul was born on November 19, 1998. His younger brother, Patrick Paul, followed him into the league as a second-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Paul was only a two-star recruit coming out of Jersey Village High School, hardly a can’t-miss prospect. He spent five years at the University of Tulsa, starting games across multiple positions on the offensive line before graduating with a degree in computer information systems in 2021. He capped his college career with an invite to the Senior Bowl.
Away from football, Paul has released R&B music under the stage name “The Seventh” and has spoken publicly about mental health advocacy, drawing on his experience as the son of immigrants.
The Job Is His to Keep
Paul carried that performance into Week 4 against Atlanta, playing every snap and grading out at 73.2 against a talented Falcons pass rush. He credits the jump to obsessive film study and picking the brains of veteran teammates. “I took it upon myself to hone in on all of those things over and over again,” Paul said, “to surround myself with a lot of other offensive linemen this offseason as well.”
For now, the left guard job belongs to Chris Paul.
Three years after going 230th overall, he’s back on the field as a starter â and making the most of it.