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Bengals coach Zac Taylor chuckles at Andrew Whitworth reunion talk

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CINCINNATI — Don’t expect a reunion between the Cincinnati Bengals and former All-Pro tackle Andrew Whitworth.

Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor chuckled at the idea of luring Whitworth, who retired after last season, out of broadcasting to fill the Bengals’ void at right tackle. In so many words, Taylor all but ruled out Whitworth as a possibility.

“We have good people in the building that we trust,” Taylor said with a smile.

Taylor said starting right tackle La’el Collins likely will be out for the season after he suffered a left knee injury in the team’s win over the New England Patriots on Saturday. Taylor said the team is still gathering more information but is “not optimistic” Collins will be able to return.

In a podcast released Tuesday, Whitworth said any time an offensive lineman gets injured, his Twitter notifications get busy. That was especially true when Collins suffered his injury.

Whitworth retired earlier this year after he helped the Los Angeles Rams beat the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. The 41-year-old ended a 16-year career that included two All-Pro selections, four Pro Bowl nods and the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2021. After the Bengals drafted Whitworth in 2006, he played left tackle for Cincinnati for the next 11 seasons before finishing his career with a five-year stint for the Rams. Since retiring, Whitworth has been part of Amazon Prime Video’s NFL coverage, which debuted this season.

On “The Season with Peter Schrager” podcast, Whitworth said he has never ruled out returning.

“I think for me, just who I am, I’ve said this since the day I retired, I’ll never say never,” Whitworth said. “There’s always a chance. I love adventures. I love taking on chances.”

However, he did note that he spent his career mostly as a left tackle and that making the transition to right tackle is difficult. Whitworth added that any decision to return would not be about tarnishing his legacy but about not letting down future teammates.

“I wouldn’t want to go in there and mess up their chances, not knowing really what I’m capable of,” Whitworth said, referencing Cincinnati’s postseason odds.

Third-year player Hakeem Adeniji is projected to be Collins’ replacement for the rest of the season. Adeniji, who finished his college career at Kansas playing left tackle, has experience on both sides of the line of scrimmage. As a rookie, he made three starts at left tackle and one at right tackle. Last season, Adeniji started the final nine games, including Super Bowl LVI, at right guard.

“It was kind of new playing guard last year,” Adeniji told reporters Tuesday. “It’s kind of more natural playing tackle. Having that full camp and early season, as opposed to last year, I definitely feel a lot better.”

Taylor wouldn’t make any declarations on the position for the team’s coming game against the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football.” He said that if Cincinnati’s scouting department presents any potential options for new players, he will consider them.

However, the fourth-year coach reiterated the trust in those already on the roster.

“We’ve got guys that we’ve had in here developing, working in our system, that we’ve got a high degree of trust in that can help us do the things that we need to this year,” Taylor said.

In other injury news, the Bengals could have tight end Hayden Hurst for the Bills showdown. Hurst has missed the past three games with a right calf injury. He was downgraded to out for the team’s Week 16 victory over the Patriots for precautionary reasons, Taylor said.

“I thought if we could give it another nine days, he’d be in great shape going in this week,” Taylor said. “So, very optimistic about him.”

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Tyron Smith Injury ‘Serious’: Dallas Cowboys Move with Call to Rams Andrew Whitworth, Sign Chiefs Ex Eric Fisher?

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FRISCO – And suddenly, a major decision in the offensive line is no longer a “choice.”  

We do not pretend to know all the ins and outs of the Dallas Cowboys’ personnel-related decision-making. We may agree with the powers that be on a potential hole in the roster … but we may not share the intricacies in why we might see the answer differently than personnel boss Will McClay and the Cowboys see it.

Money? Injuries? Personal issues? An NFL team is obviously more privy to those details than most of us are.

Which brings us to the Cowboys’ offensive line issues – which late Wednesday reached a critical stage due to a serious injury.

Left tackle Tyron Smith hasn’t played a full season since 2015, and he won’t do do again in 2022 after sustaining a hamstring tear at practice here at The Star.

We are told there is a concern there that Smith will be “out for months.” So now it’s not just about too-young swing tackles late-round rookie Matt Waletzko (he’s got a shoulder injury) or second-year guy Josh Ball, who has not impressed, with another shot at it in Saturday’s preseason game at the Chargers.

Now it’s about who starts at left tackle. And about a swing tackle, too.

In our view – while also acknowledging the idea of kicking prized rookie Tyler Smith to tackle (or even shifting Zack Martin), Dallas needs to add TWO new tackles.

Isn’t it obvious that Eric Fisher – once the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft, who played eight seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and was in the Pro Bowl as recently as 2020 – is an upgrade over Ball? And over Waletzko?

Fisher moved to the Indianapolis Colts for the 2021 season and was a full-time starter, good enough for the Colts to try to bring back before the two sides couldn’t agree on contract terms.

Entering last season, he was coming off a torn Achilles; notably, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently boasted about Dallas’ success with players in that circumstance.

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Is he too old? Fisher is 31, same age as Tyron and fellow future Hall of Fame right guard Zack Martin.

Is he injured? Again, even after the Achilles, he started in 15 games for the Colts.

Is he expensive? Ah, there is the rub, though that matters much less to Dallas than it did a day ago.

Fisher was a $12 million APY guy in his final years with the Chiefs. Last season he took a reduction with a one-year, $8.4 million deal with the Colts. Presently, Pro Football Focus’ projection has him being worthy of a three-year, $16 million contract.

The Cowboys were already going to look at help; the search just intensified, and there will be other names in this conversation, like Daryl Williams and Jason Peters and Nate Solder and others. … like retired Rams star Andrew Whitworth, who on Thursday said he fielded a Cowboys call.

And yes, Dallas – knowing Tyron might miss the entire season – should gobble up two of them.

One to replace Ball.

One to replace Tyron.

Tyron – the protector of Dak Prescott’s blind side – has gone down. Dallas now needs an Eric Fisher-level player to plug in at left tackle to make sure the season doesn’t go down with him.

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Los Angeles Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth retires after 16 NFL seasons, goes out on top

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12:08 PM ET

  • Brady HendersonESPN

Andrew Whitworth is going out on top.

The Los Angeles Rams’ 40-year-old left tackle announced his retirement Tuesday, ending a 16-year NFL career that he capped with a Super Bowl victory against his former team.

He made the announcement in a video posted to Instagram.

He had gone back and forth in public comments about whether the 2021 season would be his last. Whitworth was quoted in December as saying that the only way he’d retire was if the Rams couldn’t afford him “or there’s just some other way where it doesn’t work out for both of us for me to be back.” But two days before Super Bowl LVI, Whitworth sounded as though he was prepared to call it a career if the Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals, the team with which he spent his first 11 seasons.

“If I was going to do it, what just an unreal way, no matter what, to walk off,” Whitworth said on Feb. 11. “I don’t know that there’s anything left for me to do after that point. So, we’ll see.”

Whitworth’s résumé includes four Pro Bowl selections (2012, 2015-17) and two first-team All-Pro selections (2015 and 2017). According to Elias Sports Bureau research, he became the only player to start at left tackle in an NFL game at 40 years old after turning that age in December.

Over his five seasons with the Rams, Whitworth started 71 games and ranked second in ESPN’s pass block win rate among offensive tackles.

He was named the 2021 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year.

“He sure has meant a lot to this organization both on and off the field,” Rams coach Sean McVay said during the 2021 season. “I think sometimes you take for granted that he’s 40 years old. If you didn’t know with the bald head and stuff like that, I mean he moves around like he’s young and he’s got great athleticism.

A second-round pick out of LSU in 2006, Whitworth started 168 games for the Bengals over his 11 seasons in Cincinnati. The Rams made him one of their first free-agent additions under McVay when they signed him to a three-year, $33.75 million deal in 2017. Whitworth had one year left on the three-year, $30 million he signed in 2020.

His retirement will save the Rams $15.5 million in cap space, according to Roster Management System data. Los Angeles was roughly $19 million over the 2022 salary cap as of Sunday, per RMS.

Whitworth’s backup, Joe Noteboom, agreed to re-sign with the Rams on Monday for a three-year contract worth up to $47.5 million, including $25 million guaranteed, a source told ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry. Center Brian Allen also is returning, with his three-year deal worth $24 million, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.



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Andrew Whitworth leaning toward retirement, but Wayne Gretzky may change his mind

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Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth, currently the oldest active player in the NFL, is likely to retire. But one of the greatest athletes in the history of North American sports may change his mind.

Whitworth said on NFL Network that he thought retiring after winning his first Super Bowl would be the way to go out. But he talked to his neighbor Wayne Gretzky, who won four Stanley Cups, and was intrigued by Gretzky telling him that winning multiple championships is even better.

“I’ll never forget after we won the game, ‘The Great One’ Wayne Gretzky called me, cause I live out here near him in Sherwood,” Whitworth said. “He was like, ‘Hey Whit, there’s only one thing better than winning one, and that’s winning two.’ And I said, ‘You know what, I can’t argue with you.’ It’s gonna be tough. One way or another it’s gonna be a tough decision.”

Still, Whitworth, who was named the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year the day before the Super Bowl, sounds like a man who has done everything he wants to do in the game.

“I’m definitely leaning towards probably being done,” he said. “I think that that’s probably best for me at this time in my career. There’s obviously days I’m waking up right now that I don’t know if I want to do that. It’s battling that a little bit. I’ll come to a conclusion here soon to give the Rams a chance to make the moves they need to one way or another.”

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Andrew Whitworth, Taylor Rapp out for Sunday’s game

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The Rams won’t have their left tackle for Sunday’s divisional-round matchup against the Buccaneers.

Head coach Sean McVay told reporters in his Friday press conference that Andrew Whitworth is out for the contest.

Whitworth injured his knee and ankle on Los Angeles’ first offensive play during Monday’s victory over the Cardinals. Whitworth came back in the game and ended up playing 30 offensive snaps. But he didn’t play in the second half.

Joe Noteboom is expected to start at left tackle in Whitworth’s absence and could make some money as a pending free agent in a marquee game. The 2018 third-round pick started two games in Whitworth’s stead this season. He’s appeared in 47 games with 17 starts in four seasons.

McVay also told reporters that Taylor Rapp (concussion) is out for Sunday’s game. And while linebacker Ernest Jones was designated to return earlier this week, he also won’t play in the divisional round.

Los Angeles’ full injury report will be released later on Friday.

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Los Angeles Rams activate Andrew Whitworth from COVID-19 list

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8:48 PM GMT

  • Lindsey ThiryESPN

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    • Covered Rams for two years for Los Angeles Times
    • Previously covered the Falcons
    • Has covered the NBA and college football and basketball

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams have activated left tackle Andrew Whitworth from the reserve/COVID-19 list, the team announced Thursday.

No starters and only one player, running back Raymond Calais, who otherwise is on injured reserve, remain on the COVID-19 list for the Rams. Their coronavirus outbreak began 20 days ago.

Whitworth is expected to be available Sunday when the Rams (11-4) play the Baltimore Ravens (8-7) at M&T Bank Stadium.

The Rams, who already have clinched a playoff berth, can secure a third division title in five seasons with a victory over the Ravens, coupled with an Arizona Cardinals (10-5) loss or tie against the Dallas Cowboys.

Since the beginning of their COVID-19 outbreak, the Rams had as many as 35 players placed on the COVID-19 list, including 29 at one time.

However, despite significant roster fluctuation, the Rams went 4-0 through December and moved from second place in the NFC West into first.

Receiver Odell Beckham Jr., cornerback Jalen Ramsey, outside linebacker Von Miller, running back Darrell Henderson, safety Jordan Fuller, right tackle Rob Havenstein, tight end Tyler Higbee and Whitworth were among starters who missed time on the COVID-19 list.

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