Miracles at SoFi: LA Rams have many amazing stories in SB LVI

The golden era

The LA Rams Andrew Whitworth is now the oldest active player in the NFL. But that isn’t the story here. So what is the story? Simply the fact that Andrew Whitworth, a veteran of 16 NFL seasons, is the starting left tackle for the Rams. Not just starting, but he may be the best offensive lineman on the football field today.

For another twist, he played his first 11 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. But at the end of that chapter, the Bengals wanted to get younger at that position, and Whitworth ended up signing on with the LA Rams and their young head coach Sean McVay. If Whitworth does not sign with the team, this story may have been written much differently. But Whitworth went west and has been an incredible blind-side blocker.

But more than that. He has been the leader of the offensive line. After a horrible 2019, he gathered offensive linemen to his home gym and helped them recover from injuries, reset their minds the right way, and recharge their bodies so that they could play better in 2020. He may have overshot the mark because the offensive line rose from 31st-ranked in 2019 to 3rd-ranked in 2020.  This year, he was named the Walter Payton Man Of The Year. All that remains is to win his first Super Bowl.

From sofa to SoFi

When the LA Rams convinced defensive back, Eric Weddle, to come back to the team after retiring for two seasons, nobody knew exactly what to expect. The hope was to add veteran depth to the back end of an injury-depleted secondary. Instead, the Rams defense seemed to get an upgrade. Seriously, what?

To ease Weddle into the flow of the game, the Rams played DB Terrell Burgess on running downs and inserted Weddle into the game on obvious passing downs. But that platooning of duties lasted for just one game. In the very next week, Weddle was up to 85 percent of the defensive snaps, and the following week, he was on the field for 100 percent of the defensive snaps.

With each game, the defense improves, and Weddle plays more. Now, the LA Rams will bestow the green dot- the responsibility of calling the defensive plays, on Weddle. If the pattern continues to the trending history, the Rams could put up one of their best defensive efforts of the season in this one. And it is due, in part, to a player who was retired for two seasons.