Rams adjusting to life with out left deal with Andrew Whitworth – Los Angeles Rams Weblog

Andrew Whitworth was the left deal with for the Los Angeles Rams for 5 seasons, however someway it felt like extra.

Whitworth joined the Rams in 2017, after they had been coming off a 4-12 season, taking part in within the getting old Los Angeles Coliseum and quarterbacked by Jared Goff. By time he retired earlier this month, the Rams had been Tremendous Bowl champions, taking part in in essentially the most trendy of NFL stadiums at SoFi Stadium and quarterbacked by Matthew Stafford.

It is going to take the Rams a short time to get used to a world with out him.

“It is a new period of Rams offensive line,” middle Brian Allen stated. “It is going to be bizarre with out Whit there.”

The Rams have been grooming his substitute, Joe Noteboom — a third-round draft choose in 2018 — the previous 4 seasons. Noteboom has performed varied offensive line positions, began a complete of 17 regular-season video games and was not too long ago re-signed by the Rams to a three-year, $40 million contract with $25 million assured.

“The perfect half is understanding the coaches have the arrogance in you to signal you again to a contract right here and put you in that spot,” Noteboom stated. “However it’s additionally a problem. Being the man now comes with somewhat extra accountability. It is motivating greater than ever.”

Noteboom stated his 4 seasons as Whitworth’s teammate weren’t wasted. He stated he discovered issues resembling work habits, getting ready his physique for a protracted season and weight loss program from the veteran deal with.

“It was an ideal scenario [to learn],” Noteboom stated. “There was no different man within the league I might quite have been behind for these 4 years. That provides me confidence going into it.”

Noteboom performed some at each deal with spots and left guard final season, his first with Stafford as his teammate.

“He is a plug-and-play participant for us,” Stafford stated. “Wherever we wanted him, he stepped in and performed at a excessive degree in opposition to some actually high quality opponents. I am wanting ahead to seeing his improvement on the left facet and seeing him do his factor for a bunch of years.”

Allen and Noteboom arrived the identical season as Rams draft picks. Allen stated Noteboom was “the left deal with in ready” over the previous 4 years at the same time as he moved across the offensive line.

“I believe that left deal with spot actually is the place he’ll shine essentially the most,” Allen stated. “I am pumped for him to have this chance to actually be the man. … He absorbed a lot knowledge and a lot stuff that Whit taught him over these 4 years.”

Allen additionally re-signed with the Rams this 12 months, on a three-year contract for $18 million, with $10 million assured.

“It was positively somewhat extra worrying than I believed it was going to be … being my first time having gone by free company so I actually wasn’t positive what to anticipate or actually what I used to be getting myself into,” he stated. “However I wished to be again in L.A. and I am enthusiastic about how issues unfolded.

“I actually did not need to depart not understanding how significantly better I could possibly be in our offense. That was positively one thing that was at the back of my thoughts that I didn’t need to go someplace and be in a scenario the place I did not have somebody like Matt to work with … he’d be a tough individual to let know you had been leaving.”

Dropping Whitworth is not the one change coming to the Rams on offense. Additionally they traded broad receiver Robert Woods to the Tennessee Titans for a sixth-round choose in 2023. However they added one other receiver, Allen Robinson II, in free company with a three-year, $46.5 million contact and re-signed Stafford to a four-year contract extension price $160 million.

The Rams may nonetheless re-sign broad receiver Odell Beckham Jr., although he will not be accessible early subsequent season after tearing his ACL within the Rams’ Tremendous Bowl LVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.