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I suppose, at the end of the day there are logical reasons that both of our good linemen were let go. I'm as pissed as anyone about Whitworth not retiring as a Bengal. Fact is though, I don't love his chances of playing out a 3-year deal. His chances of breaking down at his age are relatively high. He hasn't shown it yet, but it would shock absolutely no-one if this turned out to be a giant bust signing for the Rams. Re-signing Whit would have made me feel a lot better about the line next year, but it was a band aid covering up a gunshot wound IMO.
The real problem isn't Whitworth leaving. It's not even that the team didn't prepare for his departure, because they very clearly did. The problem is that these preparations epically blew up in their faces in front of us all, and they still need to figure out if Ogbuehi is a sunken cost or if he can achieve any of the potential they still claim to see in him.
Unfortunately, that's a leap that comes with a high potential price, i.e. a sub-NFL caliber player manning a really critical position on this team. The team is willing to pay that price right now. Most fans are not. Ideally, I would have liked to have had Whitworth back for another year or two as a safeguard, but that just wasn't what the circumstance allowed for. Now we take the jump and try to erase the memory of Ced's turd 2016 season while hoping it was an aberration.
