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Big Willie - 181 games, 4x Pro Bowl, 4x All-Pro
Big Whit - 168 games, 4x Pro Bowl, 3x All-Pro
Our best 2 Tackles outside of Munoz. I could be mistaken, but I believe both posted seasons with 0 sacks allowed. Either way, both were utterly dominant in their primes. I'm not sure if some might give extra credit for Whit doing so at LT instead of RT, but it's worth mentioning.
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Man, talk about tough choices to make in life.. Could anyone else even imagine what could have been, had those two been able to play on the same Bengals team?
I'm going to give the slim edge to Big Willie, for having made All-Pro 1 more time than Whit, and for being a true superstar for the Bengals during an otherwise dismal era to have to play for them.
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Toughest call ever for me on one of these polls.
Giving slight edge to Anderson for allowing the team to brag that the Bengals featured 3 Johnson's and a Big Willie
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This quite possibly is the hardest poll of all of them.
I might personally have to go with Whit though because I watched all of his career but I only watched part of Willie's.
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Willie.
He was money in the bank every single season. Undeniable best RT in the league for most if not all of his time here. I wish we had 5 more of him.
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Loved both these guys. But I go big Willie. I believe I’ve read somewhere he’s considered one of the best rt to play the game.
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It's a 2A 2B thing for them after Munoz of course. Man this is hard
I'll say Willie
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Soooooo close, but I think I’m going Whit. I loved his nastiness and bodyguard mentality (see 2 contracts quote).
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I give the slightest edge to Willie, but you could easily just flip a coin to decide between the two. They were both so damn good.
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This is a tough one, very close. I am going Whit for how much he did off the field with the other OL. He housed and fed tons of Bengals rookies, getting them settled into the team and city, and was a huge stabilizing force. Also the fact that if Joe Thomas wasn't in the division at the same time, Whit would likely have had three times as many Pro Bowls and All-Pros. Both are probably fringe HoFers, with Whit having a better shot because of the Super Bowl and getting into TNF.
My favorite Whit stat is that I believe he never gave up a single sack to Terrell Suggs, who is going to be a HoFer, in 11 years of being division rivals.
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Willie since Whit contributed to a Bengals Super Bowl loss.
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(04-18-2023, 08:52 PM)TecmoBengals Wrote: Willie since Whit contributed to a Bengals Super Bowl loss.
Yeah, but Willie played for the Ravens…
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While Willie is the best RT ever, he did have some struggles in his only season at LT (I know, he was a rookie on a mediocre team) and he played RT when undoubtedly, the opposing team did NOT line up their best pass rusher against him.
Whitworth took his lumps in '06, was mediocre at best out of position at LG in '07 and '08 and then was the best LT we've ever had, outside of Munoz.
His 2014 is burned into my memory (pass blocking, anyways): 0 sacks, 1 QB hit and 7 hurries, for 8 total pressures on 600+ pass blocking snaps: that's one TOTAL PRESSURE, every 75+ snaps (or a game and a bit, at that time) and blocked for (IIRC) 5.3 YPC when running behind him.
Like TLL mentioned above, he faced Suggs for 2 games, Cameron Jordan, Whitney Mercilus, Watt, Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware that year, not to mention the Stoolers twice (who always sacked Andy to death).
And despite a playoff berth, all he got was a measly 2nd Team AP.
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Big Willie. He came in in the middle of a truly abysmal era- just brutal- and it didn't slow his professionalism one bit. He put his head down and went to work day in, day out, straight business, leading by example every step of the way. Which is not to say that Whit didn't, but we didn't need him to. Big Willie gave reason for optimism when there was nothing to feel optimistic about.
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Willie more dominate in his era and played with bad teams more for sure.
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(04-18-2023, 10:24 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Yeah, but Willie played for the Ravens…
Willie and the Ravens never beat us in the contest us fans so desperately want the Bengals to win. Agreed though:
I don't see any orange and black in this picture.
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(04-19-2023, 09:22 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: It also clearly wasn’t Whit’s choice to leave Cincy. Thank Troy Blackburn for that picture.
Truth to that, he could have been a Bengal winning it all with Joey B. Still though, he was the opposition and beat us in the big game. He's a Super Bowl winner with the Rams and not the Bengals.
I love Whit though so this isn't a hate on Whit series of posts by me. It's just my simple rationale for why I'm picking one guy over the other for the poll. After Munoz, I'm going Willie/Whit as beloved OL for the Bengals but "both" wasn't an option.
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(04-19-2023, 09:09 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: Willie and the Ravens never beat us in the contest us fans so desperately want the Bengals to win. Agreed though:
I don't see any orange and black in this picture.
DON"T POST THAT!!!! :@
Grr...
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