09-29-2021, 04:58 PM
(09-28-2021, 03:55 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Hindsight call; absolutely was not the wrong move at the time and doesn't even rank in the 10 worst moves.
I did the chart/list in JN about a year ago; Whitworth is the ONLY *starting* OT (not even LT) to have played beyond 37, in the past 17 years. There is only one person close to him and that's Jason Peters, who started a rapid decline last year and has fallen of a cliff completely, this year (and get this; he's a year younger than Whitworth too).
On paper, the team made the 100% correct decision. In hindsight and 4 years later, it has proven to be 100% the wrong decision.
And Nicomo is right; losing Walsh was the single-worst thing this franchise ever did, with Cook ending his career being the worst thing to happen to this franchise period, self-inflicted or not.
I disagree it was the right call at the time. 1) Whitworth was still playing at a high level. 2) Ogbuehi hadn’t even been average and would need to make a jump in his level of play to just be adequate. 3) The team was willing to pay Whitworth approximately 10M/1yr. Whitworth signed a deal for $15M guaranteed, $12.5M in year one and $2.5M in year two. It was essentially a 1 year prove it deal for about $2.5M more than the Bengals offered in the first season and if his play fell off the map they could cut him with only $2.5M in dead money in year two. 4) The Bengals had plenty of cap space and they let him walk for a difference of $5M over two years more than what they were willing to pay.
