{"id":740499,"date":"2026-07-03T08:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T08:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740499\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T08:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T08:11:20","slug":"washington-commanders-udfa-spotlight-utah-ol-tanoa-togiai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740499\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Commanders UDFA spotlight: Utah OL Tanoa Togiai"},"content":{"rendered":"

These articles about the bottom-of-the-roster players are not intended to suggest that any given player is bound for glory; rather, the articles are intended to celebrate the ongoing fight of each player to extend his NFL dream. For those of you who appreciate the fight of the underdog<\/a>, we hope you enjoy today\u2019s article and the others that came before in this \u201c2026 UDFA Spotlight\u201d series.<\/p>\n

Today, we conclude our 2026 series with Utah OL, Tanoa Togiai.<\/p>\n

Tanoa Togiai is easily the most athletic player of this year\u2019s Commanders undrafted free agent class.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6, 317-pound guard has excellent ratings in both the size and explosion categories, with good ratings in speed and agility. His short shuttle time leaves something to be desired, but his three-cone is above average, and his 33 1\/2\u201d arms are a plus. In fact, Tanoa isn\u2019t just an athletic undrafted free agent; he had the 7th-best RAS score of all the offensive guards in the entire draft.<\/p>\n

As referenced above, Utah\u2019s offensive line was one of the most athletic and highest rated in all of college football last season, which may be part of the reason Togiai went undrafted. He may have gotten overlooked. The other may revolve around his raw technique, as Tanoa did not start his career on offense.<\/p>\n

Of Polynesian descent, Tanoa grew up in Rigby, Idaho, where he played defensive line for the Rigby High Trojans and helped head coach Armando Gonzalez claim the first of his five state titles. Coach Gonzalez remembered<\/a> the 2019 5A High Country Defensive Player of the Year fondly for his performance in the semifinal game against Rocky Mountain, stating simply, \u201cThey couldn\u2019t block him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, he transitioned to the offensive line. After sitting out 2020, Tanoa played<\/a> in two games in 2021, before going on to appear in 21 games with two starts at left tackle over the next two seasons. In 2024, he was named the starting left guard alongside future first-rounders Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu. In an interview during Utah\u2019s fall camp, Togiai spoke briefly about how settling into a role at left guard made him feel more confident.<\/p>\n

The continuity suited him, and as a sixth-year senior, Togiai earned All-Big-12 Honorable Mention honors with only seven pressures and seven hurries allowed on 394 pass-blocking snaps. Tanoa didn\u2019t allow a single sack and earned his place amongst a group that were semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award<\/a>, which recognizes college football\u2019s best offensive line unit.<\/p>\n

While his senior year performance was impressive, there is no question that Togiai is still very raw at the position. There is no readily available draft profile on Tanoa, but a review of his short highlight reel shows a player that plays too upright and struggles to keep his pad level low in run blocking. Hand technique and punch are also lacking, but the athleticism and foot speed pop, and Tanoa should have the ability to mirror pass rushers and move in space.<\/p>\n

Togiai\u2019s fit with the Commanders is a strong one. The team is very deep at offensive line with several proven options, so there is no immediate need for Tanoa to contribute right away. Conversely, the talent on the practice squad could use a high-ceiling addition, as several of those 53-man options will be impending free agents in 2027. Athletically, Togiai fits the profile of starters Laremy Tunsil, Chris Paul, Sam Cosmi, and Josh Conerly Jr. while the Commanders zone scheme should suit him well. Tackle versatility is always a plus, and new offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton had success with a similar prospect in the past, coaching consensus All-American O\u2019Cyrus Torrence at Florida. There is a long way to go, but if Togiai continues to show the same learning curve he has thus far, the big guard could go on to make an impact with the Washington Commanders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These articles about the bottom-of-the-roster players are not intended to suggest that any given player is bound for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99,235817,318302],"class_list":["post-740499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports","tag-washington-commanders-draft","tag-washington-commanders-undrafted-free-agents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}