Can the LA Rams count on veteran LT Andrew Whitworth beyond 2020?

LA Rams veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth is 38 years old. Can the team count on him beyond 2020?

The last man standing from the LA Rams offensive line in 2019 was venerable offensive left tackle Andrew Whitworth. Left standing, but not uninjured.  As soon as the season ended, Whitworth headed for the operating room and had his ankle “cleaned up”.   The Phalanx of the LA Rams offensive line did not go unscathed throughout the 2019 football season. He merely did not flinch.

Now 2020 is approaching, and Andrew “Big Whit” Whitworth finds himself once more counted on by his newly adopted team to perform without a definitive backup, at one of the most punishing and violent positions of any professional sport – blind side offensive tackle.

Rams remain with Whit

In the opposite direction, Whitworth certainly has found the right team in the LA Rams. Most NFL teams part ways with an offensive lineman by the age of 36. But not Andrew Whitworth. He remains a steady NFL performer.

But at some point, age becomes the tipping point, even for the Rams. In the NFL, the decision of when to part with an offensive lineman need not be either the price or performance.

It’s predictability and projection.  Offensive linemen play at one of the most demanding positions, and when they hit the “wall” of time, performance decline rapidly. So far, Father Time has not paid a house call on “Big Whit”.