Cincinnati Bengals tackle Andrew Whitworth set to sign with L.A. Rams
According to his agency and confirmed by The Enquirer through a league source close to the situation, All-Pro left tackle Andrew Whitworth has agreed to end his decade-plus run in Cincinnati and head to Los Angeles and join the Rams. The USA Today Network is reporting that it is a $36 million deal with $15 million guaranteed.
No deals can be signed until 4 p.m. this afternoon, when the new league year begins.
Whitworth, 35, is set to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in 12-year career on Thursday.
A league source told The Enquirer there was a feeling the Bengals had an offer for the tackle but encouraged Whitworth to find a huge deal – and he did.
The Bengals’ 2006 second-round pick, Whitworth has been a team leader for years and over the past few seasons has finally gotten the league-wide attention for his steady play. He has made the last two Pro Bowls and was an All-Pro in 2015.
He follows the similar path of his predecessor, Willie Anderson, who spent 12 years manning the tackle position for the Bengals before moving on to Baltimore for his 13th and final season in the NFL.
“The way I view ‘Whit,’ he encompasses everything you want when you pull a guy off a draft board from a scouting perspective,” Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said at the NFL Scouting Combine last week. “When you pull the name off the draft board and turn the card in you want him to be Andrew Whitworth 10 years from now. Same team, multiple contracts, starter, Pro Bowl player, leader of everybody, I can throw (Domata) Peko in this mix, too, when you are sitting in a film room thinking about how good this guy could be those guys encompass exactly what you want.”
Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz spent 13 seasons at the tackle position for the Bengals.
The Bengals drafted Cedric Ogbuehi in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft with the plan of having him start at left tackle in 2017, but after a tumultuous 2016 in which Ogbuehi started at right tackle and was eventually platooned and then benched altogether, the club made an effort to keep Whitworth around.
Now, he ends his 168-game career in stripes to heads to the recently relocated Rams, who finished 4-12 last year but has a new head coach in Sean McVay, who is four years younger than Whitworth. The Rams also have a fledgling franchise quarterback in Jared Goff, the 22-year-old No. 1 overall pick from a year ago and 22-year-old running back Todd Gurley, a 2015 Pro Bowler and the No. 10 overall pick in 2014.
