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The Bengals and Carlos Dunlap continue to make progress toward a contract extension.
The latest indicator of that is Dunlap and agent Drew Rosenhaus being seen with owner Mike Brown during Saturday’s training camp practice.
Walk out to practice and Carlos Dunlap and his agent Drew Rosenhaus are chatting up Mike Brown near the South end zone. Interesting.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) July 28, 2018
NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport added this:
They have been in negotiations for another extension for Dunlap... https://t.co/f2Pdkeg0Il
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 28, 2018
The Bengals and Dunlap have been working on a contract extension throughout the offseason, and the hope is one gets done before Week 1. It appears it may get done within the next week if Dunlap’s agent is actually in town, perhaps looking to finish off the deal.
Entering his ninth NFL season, Dunlap has 64.5 career sacks, 244 tackles, 42 pass deflections and 16 forced fumbles. In 2017, Dunlap recorded 7.5 sacks, 46 total tackles, seven pass deflections and an interception returned for a game-winning touchdown against the Colts.
Dunlap is already poised to go down as one of the best pass-rushers in Bengals history. If he plays out the rest of his career here and continues to play at a high level, he could go down as the best.
While the Bengals have added guys like Carl Lawson, Jordan Willis and Sam Hubbard to help offset a potential loss of Dunlap in 2019, they still want him to be a leader for this team and an anchor along the defensive line for several more years.
It sounds like both sides are close to making that happen, though it’s far from being a done deal, as Dunlap deserves to be one of the higher-paid defensive ends in football.