With his ticket scheduled for the Super Bowl LV, former Auburn standout Prince Tega Wanogho will not be following the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL championship game, after all.
The Chiefs released his training team’s offensive tackle on Monday, ending Wanogho’s short stay with the team that almost paid for a trip to the Super Bowl.
Wanogho’s first NFL season apparently ended on January 3 with the Philadelphia Eagles completing a 4-11-1 campaign in a 20-14 loss to the Washington Football Team.
A pick in the sixth round of the NFL Draft on April 25, Wanogho spent his debut season on the Eagles’ training team. Philadelphia elevated Wanogho to the end of the season, and he took the field against Washington for two games on special teams.
Training squad contracts for teams that did not enter the NFL postseason camp expired on January 11. The former Edgewood Academy highlight visited the Chiefs on January 12, and Kansas City hired Wanogho for his training team on January 16.
Wanogho’s release looked strangely timed after the Chiefs lost their left offensive tackle on Sunday. No corresponding move was made to fill the training team’s seat left vacant by Wanogho’s release.
In Kansas City’s 38-24 victory over Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game, Eric Fisher suffered a rupture in the Achilles tendon, Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters on Monday.
Martinas Rankin is the swing tackle on the Kansas City depth chart, but he played in just one game of the regular season – when the Chiefs rested many of his post-season holders in their 16th competition.
Fisher was injured with about 12 minutes left to play against Buffalo. The Chiefs responded to his absence by moving the tackle to the right Mike Remmers in place of Fisher on the left. Right guard Andrew Wylie slipped into the right tackle, and Stefen Wisniewski, a 10-year-old veteran with 106 NFL games, came into play as a right guard.
Remmers was already an injury substitute. He joined the roster when right-back Mitchell Schwartz suffered a back injury in the sixth game of the season.
At the Super Bowl LV, the Chiefs are scheduled to play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 5:30 pm CST on February 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. CBS will broadcast the game on television.
Kansas City is trying to become the first team to win consecutive NFL championships since the New England Patriots defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6, 2005, after defeating the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in the Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @ AMarkG1.
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