The Bengals and veteran wide receiver Brandon LaFell agreed on a deal one day before the official start of free agency, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. It’s a two-year accord, Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com tweets. He’ll get $9MM worth of base pay over the life of the deal, Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports (via Twitter).
The 30-year-old wideout rebounded in 2016, hauling in 64 passes for 862 yards and six touchdowns. This helps keep A.J. Green‘s complementary crew together, along with Tyler Boyd and Tyler Eifert, after the Bengals lost both Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu in free agency last March.
LaFell indicated recently he wanted to return to Cincinnati, and he’ll get his wish. The Bills had interest in acquiring the eighth-year pass-catcher, but LaFell will sign his second Bengals contract and continue to work in the Andy Dalton-led offense. Last year, he signed for one year and $2.5MM. After rebuilding his value to some degree after an injury-plagued 2015 season, it will be interesting to see what LaFell earns on his most recent contract.
The bounce-back 2016 campaign doubled as the former Panthers draft choice’s second-most receiving yards in a season. The 2014 slate in which he functioned as one of Tom Brady‘s auxiliary targets represents LaFell’s best at 953 yards. But in Cincy last season — on a team that did not have Green and Eifert together for long — LaFell increased his yards-per-catch figure to 13.5 from his best NFL season.