Cincinnati Bengals rumors: A.J. Green extension next on the agenda?

The Cincinnati Bengals took over the NFL news wire for the majority of Monday morning with the announcement that they had come to terms with quarterback Andy Dalton on a six-year, $115 million extension.

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With their quarterback locked up for the foreseeable future, it sounds like the Bengals won’t waste much time before looking to get another key cog on offense signed to a multi-year deal.

As Ian Rapoport notes, the Bengals will not look to engage their top wide receiver A.J. Green about a possible extension. You’ve got to give that franchise quarterback a top target, after all.

AJ Green is next up for the #Bengals. They were waiting to dig into his deal until Andy Dalton got done. Now, Dalton’s deal is done.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 4, 2014

It’s hard to know exactly how one side affects the other in terms of the importance of Green. An obvious top flight, number one wideout in the NFL, it is probably true that Green does a lot to make Dalton look better than he actually is.

That might especially be true in the case of Dalton, whose tool set as a franchise quarterback is…debatable.

In his career Green, age 26, has 260 catches for 3,833 yards and 29 touchdowns. In that sense Dalton certainly has done plenty to set Green up for success. At the same time, however, Green spends a lot of his time dejectedly jogging back to the huddle with his head down after a pass sailed over his head or bounced at his feet.

Such is the good and the bad of so many QB-WR relationships, I suppose. If nothing else, these two are very familiar with one another and the Bengals’ front office appears set on keeping them together for a long time.

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