01-12-2022, 12:14 PM
(01-12-2022, 11:04 AM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Mike Santagata and Bengals_sans
Whitworth was fine coming out, he just struggled at LG 'cause he wasn't the greatest puller at guard and he had the horrible MNF game against Freeney at LT, so people wrote him off as, "he struggled," "he should be moved to G {WHERE HE WAS WORSE} or RT," or the common one (due to Freeney), "he can't handle speed rushers!" which I had to debunk on here a few weeks ago (thus people still think it so).
He wasn't the player he became, out of the gate, but he wasn't this struggling, fringe player like many claim him to be.
And he put on weight because he had back surgery and couldn't move for a couple of months. This has been established since July and people only continue on with it due to that stupid hearsay report of him, "spending time at bars instead of getting in shape."
People have made it to try and make him fail, since he wasn't one of the, "name," OL in the draft, so they are doing everything they can to tear him down.
If he was the worst player on this team, week in, week out, they may have something, but not only has he flashed, he has put together a few good games overall.
I think he'll be starting RG, beginning next year and if they can't re-sign Spain, he goes to LG (until 2 weeks ago, I never would've even thought that was possible).
Correct; he did report to camp, IIRC (may be wrong on this) at 290/295 pounds and everyone said he needed to bulk up for a year, only playing due to Bobbie's... suspension I think (could've been injured too, but it's sticking in my mind that he was suspended). Once he had a year in the system, he got up to his playing weight of 305-310 and that's where he remained for the rest of his career, where he was consistently top 5 at his position, in the conference (and many times, top 5 in the entire league).
Boling played because Travelle Wharton got hurt IIRC. They signed Wharton to start and I don't think he ever played a regular season down.
