I swear I have been posting about Whitworth's pending retirement since the 2018 season... it's crazy that we're here discussing the very possible option that he returns in 2022.
On one hand, he is still one of the top 10 OTs in the league. Amazing. He is. And his team leadership and intangibles cannot be overlooked at all. He was THE best single free agent signing of 2017 and has not for one minute disappointed since. On the other hand, when the end comes, it usually comes pretty fast... And I do subscribe to the whole "let guys go a year early vs. a year late" idea. But the salary cap thing is a big thing here. If he does want to return it's going to be really hard to keep pretty much anyone else (SJD, Allen, Corbett or Williams). Does he restructure to come back for something like $4-5M? If not I just don't know how they can do it.
And with Noteboom, I think there is still a lot of projection about him. He played well in the season finale as a rookie in 2018. Then not so much in 6 games in 2019. Better in 2020 and in limited work this year. And we'll see how he's used the rest of the way. He's played just under 1,200 offensive snaps total in 4 years. I have to think in the building they know him well enough and have seen enough to form a judgement about him. Will other teams? I tend to doubt another team is going to hand him a big contract. But LT is a premium position so who knows.
