Joe Reedy was the first to report that the Cincinnati Bengals have reached an agreement with Pro Bowl DT Geno Atkins on a five-year contract extension.
- Atkins’ contract is for a total value of $55 million.
- He’ll make $31 million in the first three years of his new deal.
- Atkins is likely to carry a $7 million cap figure in 2013 and a $9.3 million cap figure next season. (Joe Reedy)
The Bengals had $17.8 million in available cap space to work with and Ian Rapoport notes that even after signing Atkins, Cincinnati still has $10 million available to them. Only Haloti Ngata and Ndamukong Suh have larger contracts at the interior defensive line position.
The two sides had been discussing a long-term agreement for several weeks now, so it’s not a huge shock that they were able to get something worked out before the start of regular season.
Atkins is already a two-time Pro Bowl selection and is without a doubt one of the best interior defensive lineman currently in the NFL. Last year, he was rated as the No. 1 defensive tackle in the league by Pro Football Focus. We had him listed as the No. 1 player in our Top 50 – 2014 Free Agents list.
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