It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
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In the NFL, a “swing tackle” is a backup offensive tackle who can play either the left or right tackle position. This versatility allows a team to have a reliable player ready to fill in at either spot if needed, whether due to injury or strategic adjustments. Essentially, the swing tackle is a versatile piece of the offensive line that can handle both left and right tackle duties.
In recent years, veteran tackle Cornelius Lucas filled the role quite capably. With Lucas no longer on the roster, there’s a question about who the Commanders can rely on to fill this role.
Per Pro Football Focus, here are the career snaps taken at each line position by all of the tackles currently on the roster aside from LT Laremy Tunsil and rookie Josh Conerly.
The four clear backups
Bobby Hart
Hart has the greatest number of snaps at 4,614, however, he has two big issues:
- He has only 6 career snaps as a LT; he is almost exclusively a RT (98% of career snaps)
- Hart has not played a regular season snap at tackle since 2021, and has not played an offensive snap at any position in the past two seasons
Tyre Phillips
Phillips has little experience playing LT (65 career snaps; 4% of total). He is primarily a RT with flexibility to play RG.
Foster Sarell
The least experienced of the four, Sarell entered the NFL undrafted in 2021 and has spent his entire career with the Chargers. He has played 46 snaps at LT in the NFL, but 84% of his career snaps have come on the right side.
Trent Scott
Of the four backups, Scott is the only one to have played in games for the Commanders. He has shown surprising flexibility in his NFL career by playing at least 440 snaps at three different positions. If we look at only the tackle position, he has 1,579 career snaps, with 59% played at left tackle and 41% at right tackle.
The two 2024 starters
Andrew Wylie
Wylie is by far the most experienced offensive tackle on the roster aside from Laremy Tunsil. However, Wylie has never played LT; 92% of his career snaps have been on the right side at both guard and tackle.
Brandon Coleman
All but one of Coleman’s 999 offensive snaps in his rookie year were played at left tackle. Dan Quinn indicated prior to the draft that Coleman would get a shot at the right tackle position, but with the drafting of Josh Conerly in the 1st round, it seems more likely that Coleman will end up competing with Nick Allegretti for the starting left guard spot.
For the detail-minded, here are the career snaps by position and season for each of the 6 tackles discussed in the article:
