Cincinnati Bengals
Whitworth holding down LT spot
By Steve Gartner, CNATI.com Posted December 4, 2009 11:11 AM ET
Andrew Whitworth is back at left tackle and he hasn't missed a beat; or an opposing team's defensive lineman.
After playing his first three seasons with the Bengals at left guard, Whitworth switched to left tackle in the offseason. He played there while in college with LSU and said coach Marvin Lewis asked him to move back to left tackle during voluntary workouts last spring.
Whitworth gladly accepted the move.
"You play the league's best every week," Whitworth said. "You never really can pat yourself on the back. You just have to keep going."
Against many of the league's best defenders, Whitworth has succeeded, only allowing one sack through the Bengals' 11 games.
"To play left tackle against the guys he has with one sack is unbelievable," offensive line coach Paul Alexander said. "He grades out in the 90s darn near every week. He's playing at a high level."
Alexander said the Bengals switched Whitworth at this point in his career because former Bengal Levi Jones struggled to remain healthy at that position in the past. The Bengals released Jones, their former first round draft pick from 2002, last offseason. And with Whitworth's versatility as a lineman, the transition was easy.
"He's an unbelievable athlete for a guy as big as he is," Alexander said. "He's a tremendous athlete in terms of his hand-eye coordination and ball skills and it helps that he has a great understanding of football."
The move was only helped by Whitworth's success in college at the position. It also placed him next to former Tigers teammate Nate Livings who now starts at left guard.
"I know how Whit plays and he knows how I play," Livings said. "We communicate in different ways because we've played together so long."
Whitworth learned about the move in the offseason which gave him plenty of time to prepare before the season. Alexander said he knew after last season that the Bengals had to put him in the most important spot on line because of his value.
"Going into the draft meetings after the season last year, I said Whit's our best tackle," Alexander said. "There wasn't a tackle in the draft who could play left tackle better than Whit, so that's where we were."
While Whitworth didn't do anything different this offseason to prepare for the switch, he said he realized that the left tackle position required much more from him than it did when he was at LSU.
"In college you can get away with things you can't at the pro level," Whitworth said. "If you mess up technique-wise, you're going to get beat."
So far that hasn't been a problem.
Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, Features
Tags: Andrew Whitworth, Levi Jones, Nate Livings, Paul Alexander
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