The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that the Bengals and wide receiver A.J. Green have joined the wide receiver contract extension party by agreeing to a four-year extension.
Fellow receivers Dez Bryant, Julio Jones and Demayrius Thomas, all recently signed five year contracts in the neighborhood of $70 million over five years. However Green will get more money per year and more up front than all of them. Green signed a four-year extension worth $60 million.
The extension-mania that has hit the league makes me wonder when Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, whose contract is up after this season, will get his. The Bears front office is understandably being cautious with Jeffery, who has a bad habit of getting hurt and who hasn’t shown the new regime anything on the field, yet. But Green’s contract might serve as a model for the team and Jeffery’s representatives to follow.
According to profootballtalk.com a key negotiating point was the Bengals not guaranteeing money past the first year, making the duration of the deal key to Green’s representatives, settling on a four-year deal, not five. A similar structure might decrease the team’s risk in extending Jeffery to the point that it might become feasible to do a deal sooner rather than later, something I’d recommend they do rather than letting Jeffery hit the open market. The franchise tag will also remain a very viable possibility for Jeffery unless someone else emerges this season who will be a candidate for it.