Rams Are Well Represented in Voting for NFL’s New Award

Andrew Whitworth won a Super Bowl with the Rams, earned four Pro Bowl selections and the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. So, when he vocally encouraged the league to create an award to honor unsung offensive linemen, the NFL listened.

While introducing the Protector of the Year award at last week’s May meeting in Minneapolis, the league also was voting whether to abolish the Tush Push. Kevin Demoff combined both topics in providing some shrewd background information.

“Credit to @AndrewWhitworth and others for ‘pushing’ for offensive linemen to be recognized,” the president of team and media operations for Kroenke Sports and Entertainment tweeted last Wednesday. “Long overdue and deserving.”

Whitworth and current Bills tackle Dion Dawkins, also instrumental and vocal in creating the award, got it off the launchpad. Now, six panelists will steward it for the immediate future. All are highly respected former NFL linemen, and two of them are former Rams.

Like his serve as a Louisiana state tennis champion at West Monroe High School, Whitworth on the panel was an easy ace.

“This award means everything to the big guys up front,” Whitworth said. “The Protector of the Year isn’t just about stats – it’s about the mindset, grit and leadership it takes to be the foundation of a football team. It’s time the men who lead, protect and never ask for credit are recognized as the backbone of this game.”

Another Rams backbone is the team’s other legend on that panel, Pro Football Hall of Famer Orlando Pace.

The No. 1 overall selection in the 1997 draft, Pace anchored the Rams’ offensive line from 1997-2008 before finishing his career with the Bears in 2009. That career included seven Pro Bowl selection and three All-Pro honors. The Rams won the Super Bowl with Pace as their chief protector in 1999, and returned to the big game two years later before losing a heartbreaker to Tom Brady and the Patriots.

Over 12 years with the Rams, Pace played in 168 games, including 10 postseason starts.

Other panelists on the Protector of the Year committee, which will select future winners beginning at the end of the 2025 season, are LeCharles Bentley (center/guard for New Orleans Saints and Cleveland from 2002-07), Jason Kelce (center for Philadelphia from 2011-23),

Shaun O’Hara (center for Cleveland and the N.Y. Giants from 2000-10) and Will Shields (guard for Kansas City from 1993-2006).

Interestingly, the two former Rams are also the only former offensive tackles on the panel. That’s important because the league chose to call it the Protector of the Year award, rather than simply Offensive Lineman of the Year. Choosing that moniker implies that the award places pass protection above other key lineman skills, such as run blocking. There’s also an immediate perception, partly because of the name, that the award will simply go to the league’s best left tackle.

However, putting four non-tackles on the panel figures to curb that perception.

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