Drue Chrisman did not receive an offer from the Washington Commanders after his tryout to become the NFL team’s next punter. He did expose the organization for forcing him to delete a behind-the-scenes video of his attempt to make the roster.
It was a super lame move by a historically lame franchise.
Chrisman won four Big Ten titles while flipping fields at Ohio State from 2017 to 2020.
The 27-year-old went undrafted in 2021 and ultimately landed on the Bengals roster. He averaged 47.8 yards per kick on 28 punts in two years with Cincinnati. Brad Robbins beat him out during training camp in 2023.
After a year away from the game, Chrisman played a month ing the UFL during the spring of 2024. The Birmingham Stallions released him in May.
It is not easy to be a specialist in the NFL. There is a lot of turnover. There are only 32 spots!
Chrisman has carved out a career in content creation in addition to football. His social media videos offer an inside look at his life, which can be chaotic— especially right before the season, when teams are scrambling to figure out what their punting/kicking situation looks like before taking the field for Week 1.
He recently spent time in San Francisco. The 49ers chose to pass.
Chrisman then traveled to Virginia for a workout with the Washington Commanders. They, too, decided not to offer him a contract.
Not long after returning home from the tryout, Chrisman posted a video that was nearly identical to the one he posted from the reigning Super Bowl runners-up. (If his original post on X gets deleted, you can likely find the video with a little bit of digging, but it doesn’t take away from the story!)
San Francisco did not have any issue with Chrisman’s BTS account of his day with the team. The same cannot be said for Washington!
He received a text (presumably from his agent) with demands from the organization’s legal department. They asked him to “take down all social media posts that show anything Commanders.”
Washington, yet again, proved to be the softest franchise in the NFL. If anything, Drue Chrisman’s video actually made the team facility (especially the food) look better than expected!
It will be curious to see where the punter decides to go from here.