Prince Tega Wanogho vs the Jaguars; Let's talk right tackle
Looking at every snap of the young RT against Jacksonville
There’s an old saying that the backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town. When you’re talking about the Kansas City Chiefs, that’s never going to be true, but it sure can be applied elsewhere.
The idea behind backup players being popular is simple; People are optimistic about the unknown and tend to be pessimistic about the known if it’s not high-quality. In other words, football fans tend to divide players three groups; Stars, bad players, and guys with potential. If you’re a veteran they’ve seen plenty of and you don’t fall into the first group, you often end up relegated to the second by default.
And what that means for a player like Chiefs’ right tackle Andrew Wylie is that people are going to be consistently clamoring for a young player to replace you. And to be fair to those doing the clamoring, Wylie hasn’t been as steady in 2022 as he was in 2021, especially in pass protection. And when you’re protecting Patrick Mahomes, that tends to matter.
When Wylie went down with an elbow injury and backup RT Prince Tega Wanogho replaced him for his first significant snaps of the season, I had more requests for a Tega Wanogho review than for Trent McDuffie and arguably even Kadarius Toney (I got to Toney first for what I believe to be obvious reasons).
(It should be noted that Wylie didn’t appear on the injury report Thursday and looks to be playing Sunday, by the way)
The question people were putting to me was simple; Did Tega Wanogho show enough against the Jaguars to be considered a viable replacement? After all, the offense played relatively well down the stretch and he was part of the game-clinching drive (though in a hilarious way if we’re being honest).
For me, the question is a bit more complicated than that, as one partial game is an awfully small sample size to draw conclusions. That said, it made sense to go back and look at every snap to see how he performed when forced into action. Those who haven’t read an offensive lineman review here before, here’s a quick primer:
I chart every pass blocking and run blocking down for wins, losses, and neutral snaps (“PBW” = pass block win, “PBL” = pass block loss, and the same with run blocking), as well as for pressures/hits/sacks allowed on the quarterback. A win is a snap in which the lineman executes an excellent 1x1 block or a great combo block (starting with a double team then getting into space alone). A loss is when a blocker gets beaten or misses a block. A neutral snap is when the blocker might give ground but fights the defender to a draw, or has little to do on the snap.
It’s worth noting that losses are far, far more important than wins for offensive linemen, as in general a dominant block doesn’t guarantee that a play succeeds but losing on a snap can doom a play to failure. So a player having a high win percentage matters a lot less than a low loss percentage, and “neutral” snaps are still a victory of sorts (especially against elite competition).
All right, let’s talk about what Tega Wanogho put on film against the Jaguars, what is encouraging, and what gives me pause as the Chiefs move forward.