Rams’ Whitworth is ‘ready to roll’ for another year, or more

NEWPORT BEACH >> It only feels as if Andrew Whitworth has been playing pro football since the days of the Cleveland Rams and 12-game schedules.

In fact, the left tackle is merely about to turn 40 (next December) and going into his 16th NFL season as he starts his fifth Rams training camp today when the team opens two weeks of practice at UC Irvine.

It’s an important camp for Whitworth, who’s coming off the worst injury of his career and staring at the league’s expanded, 17-game regular season.

“I’m fresh — mentally, physically, everything — and ready for the journey,” Whitworth said Tuesday at the Rams’ hotel.

Before the annual American rite of Andrew Whitworth reporting to training camp came his personal summer ritual of training at altitude on family vacation

in Colorado and his pandemic-era routine of lifting weights with teammates at his home garage gym in Westlake Village.

The priority this time was to build strength and stability in his left knee, where MCL and ACL tears cost him seven games before he returned for the Rams’ playoff win over the Seahawks and loss to the Packers.

“Ready to roll,” Whitworth declared.

That’s what the Rams needed to hear. They’re rated contenders to play in the Super Bowl next February on home turf at SoFi Stadium and need a spry Whitworth to protect new quarterback Matthew Stafford’s blind side. Like Stafford, Whitworth has earned individual honors (two times AllPro, four Pro Bowls) in his long career but never won the biggest game.

Whitworth’s big-picture take on the team is always worth listening to.

“I think we have a lot of guys that really have stuff to prove and enjoy playing the game,” he said. “I feel really good about that, because that’s the best place to start from.”

Whitworth said that includes Stafford, whom he got to know when their families connected in the offseason.

“You can tell he’s one of those guys that does it the right way and is a great representation of this league,” Whitworth said.

The offensive line Whitworth has nobody new but will undergo some change after center Austin Blythe left as a free agent. Austin Corbett is getting the first shot at playing center, moving over from right guard, and Whitworth endorses the move.

“He’s a guy that you can rely on, and that’s what you want first and foremost snapping in football,” Whitworth said.

Corbett, 14 years younger than Whitworth, returned the compliment and then some Tuesday.

“Andrew’s truly a oneof-a-kind in this league,” Corbett said. “For him to be approaching 40 and still playing at such an elite level is amazing and a credit to how he takes care of his body and the mental prep that he does.”

A Rams publicist got a laugh from Whitworth by noting his NFL career now is old enough to have its own driver’s license.

But entering the second season of his threeyear Rams contract, Whitworth gave no indication he’s looking to shift into park.

“I guess a little bit of the gambler spirit,” he said. “I keep saying at some point you’ve got to hedge your bet that this is the last (year). I don’t know when that is, but this could be it.

“But I’ve said that seven or eight times in a row. So we’ll see.”