When the Los Angeles Rams offense takes the field on Super Bowl Sunday, Odell Beckham Jr. won’t be the only prominent player with ties to the New York Giants organization. That’s because had Andrew Whitworth gotten his wish as a free agent in 2017, he wouldn’t even be a Ram, but instead serving as the anchor of the offensive line unit in East Rutherford.
“I actually had reached out and wanted to be a Giant just because I knew Eli Manning really well,” Whitworth told The New York Post on February 7 regarding his free agency four years ago. “But they kinda said no because they thought they were gonna continue with Ereck Flowers at left tackle, and that obviously didn’t end up working the next year. Once we got into it and realized that wasn’t an option, the Jets showed some interest but it wasn’t really something that I was that interested in doing.”
In Typical (Recent) Giants Fashion…
As Whitworth highlighted, the Flowers experiment in New York did not go according to plan. Selected No. 9 overall in 2015, the Miami (FL) product was an utter bust for the Giants. After two games into the 2018 regular season — just north of one year after New York spurned Whitworth — Flowers was benched in favor of Chad Wheeler. Three games later he was outright released after the team failed to find a potential trade suitor.
Flowers has actually gone on to carve out a respectable career since undergoing a position change. Over the last three years, the current left guard of the Washington Commanders has started 46 games. With that said, he’s been nowhere near the force that Whitworth has been in Los Angeles since originally inking a three-year, $36 million ($15 million guaranteed) deal in 2017.
Whitworth Still Thriving at 40 Years Old
The real kicker in all of this is one year after rejecting Whitworth a new Giants regime, led by now-retired GM Dave Gettleman, signed Nate Solder to a deal nearly double what Whitworth received from the Rams. Four years later, Solder’s playing career looks to be hanging in the balance while a 40-year-old Whitworth continues to thrive.
Through 15 regular-season games in 2021, Whitworth allowed just 16 pressures and according to Pro Football Focus, “was arguably the best pass-blocking left tackle in the NFL this season.” His 86.1 overall PFF grade would appear to back up that claim.
In what may prove to be Whitworth’s final NFL game, he’ll look to capture his first-ever Lombardi Trophy in true storybook fashion — against the franchise that he spent the first 11 years of his career playing for.
“When the playoffs started, I was like there’s no way it ends up being us (the Rams) and them (the Bengals), but when it got down to the championship games, of course, I was rooting for this match-up,” Whitworth’s wife Melissa told WCPO on February 8. “One, because we’re rooting for Joe Burrow every day except for the day we play him…he’s so rad, he’s so good. And then two, we love the fan base. We love the people of Cincinnati.”
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