Andrew Whitworth Reveals His Favorite Part Of Working In Sports Media

The Spun: Can you tell us a bit more about your partnership with Tide?

Andrew Whitworth: It was a really cool opportunity to go spend a game day in Los Angeles in the tailgate section. Just being out, and enjoying the fans and their passion and energy for the game was a blast. As a player you're always going to the stadium, you see all of that going on, you're always so jealous. Everybody's having a blast with music, food, drinks, and everything. I'd love to go check it out but I'm stressed out about facing Nick Bosa, James Harrison, or whoever. 

So, it was cool to go down there and run through the tailgate section and have a good time. It was fun because to me, it's like, there's nobody that does it better than Rams fans on game day and nobody cleans better than Tide so I got to go there, hand out Tide pods. People got food, drinks, and everything else on them. We're trying to protect all that apparel they've bought that they've probably spent a lot of money on, keeping it clean. I found a 77 Whitworth jersey so I gave that guy every pod in my bag because we got to protect this thing. There's probably only one of these jerseys out in this entire crowd so this was the most important one to keep clean but we had a blast. It was a lot of fun.

The Spun: Speaking of the Rams, you had a lot of success with them, but how long do you think their Super Bowl window is open for? Should they reset after this season?

Whitworth: I think it's interesting. I mean, to think right now at this point where we are in the season, the Rams have not taken a single snap with their starting offensive line that they prepared with in training camp. It's bonkers. It's crazy, especially after 2022, you see these seasons happen where you have injuries or whatever to your team but then there's usually a gap between when it happens again. But to see again, only two years later, them to have as many injuries as they've had on offense, which has led to obviously, it's hard to compete when you don't have your skill players. It's hard to compete when you don't have your skill players and when you don't have your offensive line. 

But now, to get into this game (November 11 against the Miami Dolphins), this one felt different because it's like your young defense has gotten better. They're continuing to get better and better every week. It's showing why some of that talent is there. To go into that game and to get some of those guys back and unfortunately, because you haven't had many games where you've all been together, there's not a lot of cohesiveness. You could see they were all a little off while playing together. It's not the standard on how they want to play a game up front. It leads to you probably losing a game that needed to be in that stretch that if you're going to go on this finish to get yourself in the playoffs, it kinda feels like this is that game that you needed to be part of that streak as a win because I thought they were the better team but unfortunately, didn't play that way. 

The Spun: Switching to the Bengals. Do you think they’ll consider some big changes if they miss the playoffs this year, especially with Joe Burrow playing so well?

Whitworth: That's an interesting one, too. I don't know. I know Zac Taylor, being here with the Los Angeles Rams with him. He's an awesome human and has done a really cool job there. Did an amazing job getting to the Super Bowl, not something the Bengals have done much. He's obviously done a great job so I think it's interesting because it's kind of like, how do you as a Cincinnati Bengals organization, I look at it as, how do they sustain success? I've said this multiple times. To me, I think they missed an opportunity to do that a little bit and maybe they still can. 

I don't know what they're planning to do with Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase going forward but I kinda felt like a year ago, after they really lost to the Rams in the Super Bowl, and then the next year they made the run and they get beat in the AFC Championship Game. They were kinda in that pinnacle with how talented everybody was, which led to paying Joe Burrow. I kinda thought they needed to trade one of those receivers at that time because I felt like they would've gotten a huge haul for one of them. That would've set them up to draft more talent to kinda continue this window and build a roster around Joe Burrow. 

Yes, Tee Higgins is amazing, Ja'Marr Chase is amazing, but I feel like I gotta pick one of them because the truth is, I know as an organization, we're not paying them both. So, we gotta move off of one of them. Can we get a really good tight end? Can we get a little better on defense? How can we improve our roster to kinda build it around, we know we have a guy in Joe Burrow that will be here forever. He's gonna be where our franchise is built on, let's pick one of the two receivers, and then let's build a roster that supports Joe continuing to take us to championships. 

I just think they missed that window a little bit by saying alright, what's the best way to be explosive on offense is keeping both of them as long as we can. Well, yeah, but what's the best way to keep your Super Bowl window open? In my opinion, it was going and getting a lot of picks and continuing the success because the only time that the Cincinnati Bengals have ever been good is the stretch of years when they draft really good back-to-back-to-back. That's what it is. When I was there, the same thing from 11-15 when we went to the playoffs, they drafted really well from 11-13. You look at the draft picks they got, boom, Joe Burrow is there. Same thing. You drafted really well in that little era. They're going to build through the draft. They're not paying everybody. They don't have the money to do it. So, you gotta be ahead of it and I think they missed the window to get ahead of it. 

The Spun: Who would you say is the top favorite to come out of the AFC and NFC right now?

Whitworth: Right now, as it sits, obviously, the Chiefs are showing they're that team. I'm interested because I think the Ravens are really special on offense. Unfortunately, I thought the other night, I kinda said I think the Ravens are gonna catch them because I think they're good enough on offense and can score some points on the Chiefs but they've gotta be able to play good enough on defense to really make it a game. It drove me crazy to see Tee Higgins is not in, Joe Burrow really doesn't have anyone else to give the ball to (outside of Chase) and they still let Chase go for 250-260 yards. 

That didn't make a lot of sense to me. It feels like you're going to do everything you can to eliminate him from the game and he's not going to beat you and for them to show that they can't even do that, that made me worry about them. I kept feeling like the defense was going to get healthier, their coordinator was going to get better as the year went on, and Zach is going to feel more comfortable with his group, that's still what I need to see. If they do that, I think they'll get there. I feel like they'll be right there with the Chiefs and it's going to be one heck of a game. 

In the NFC, I think the Lions are at the top but I have the Eagles and the 49ers circled to see how they finish. Both of those teams have the talent that they should be up there, they just haven't played to that standard. The Eagles actually have sneakily since their bye. They have played insanely well and they've been one of the best teams in the NFC since the bye week. Can they continue it, though? 

The Spun: What's your favorite part about working in sports media today, especially with Amazon Prime Video?

Whitworth: I think just the actual locker room community team, whatever you want to call it, of being part of something like that. It's funny, driving in today, my son asked me, 'Hey dad, when you joined Amazon, did it already exist or is it new?' I was like, 'No, let me explain this, I think I've explained this but I'll explain it again.' I was explaining to him how we all started it together and how it was Amazon's first time having Thursday Night Football, the first time it's ever been streamed, we're first-time employees there, everybody behind the camera, production, etc. It's been so cool to be part of that from the beginning. To say that we're tight is a massive understatement. We are family, in front of the camera and behind it. 

My favorite part has been that family and the respect I have gained for all the people who work behind the scenes to make it such a special show and make it what it is. I've got a newfound respect for what goes into that, how hard people work to do it, and as I say when you're in front of the camera, you're living the QB life. It's the easy part, you show up, smile, wave, and talk some football. But, the people behind that camera are living the o-line life. They are grinding and working hard and not getting as much credit as they should so it's been really cool to learn all of those dynamics. 

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You can watch Whitworth on Prime Video each Thursday during the regular season for Thursday Night Football.

This Thursday will feature the 8-2 Pittsburgh Steelers visiting the 2-8 Cleveland Browns. Kickoff will be at 8:15 p.m. ET.

You can find the rest of our interviews here.