Bengals Notes: Atkins, Dunlap, Ross

Defensive tackle Geno Atkins is near the top of the Bengals’ wishlist of players to extend. The six-time Pro Bowler is entering the final year of a five-year $55MM extension and though he turned 30 earlier this week, he’s not showing signs of slowing down.

Atkins has tallied nine sacks in each of the last two seasons without missing a game. In fact, he hasn’t missed a game since 2013.

The Bengals have indicated his extension will certainly be a priority.

“In our football business, you pay for high-end talent and Geno has been at the top of our industry for a long time and we think he can continue to do that and that’s why we’re trying to see what the opportunities are going forward,” said Bengals vice president Troy Blackburn to Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Atkins set the market for defensive tackles back in 2013 but has since been upstaged by the likes of Gerald McCoy (seven years, $98MM) and Ndamukong Suh (six years, $114MM — with the Dolphins). Suh most-recently signed a one-year, $14MM deal with the Rams.

Here’s more from the Bengals:

• The Bengals have another defensive lineman nearing free agency in Carlos Dunlap. He’s also entering the final year of his deal — a six-year, $40MM extension signed in July 2013. The 29-year-old two-time Pro Bowler hasn’t logged less than 7 1/2 sacks in a season since 2013 while not missing a game since 2012. Blackburn said “That’s right” to Dehner Jr. when asked if Dunlap was viewed in the same scope as Atkins. But excess talent at defensive end in Carl Lawson and Jordan Willis could complicate matters. “At the same time, we’re going to be looking at the young guys we have coming up,” Blackburn said. 
• John Ross had an abysmal rookie season with the Bengals, fumbling on his only touch of the year. But his lack of production didn’t have to do with a fractured relationship with coach Marvin Lewis. “He wasn’t in my doghouse. I don’t have a doghouse,” Lewis said to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I think he’s all the ability we wanted. That’s why we drafted him. He had to get fixed. We knew he was injured going in and he got nicked up a couple of times in his lower legs and the other shoulder was bothering him. He’s all fixed now.” The Bengals took the speedster out of Washington with the No. 9 overall pick of the 2017 draft.
• Earlier this week, Bengals president of player personnel Duke Tobin acknowledged that building around a player like Vontaze Burfict hasn’t been “ideal” but the team plans to stick by him and his recently-signed three-year extension for the time being. Burfict is suspended for the first four games of the upcoming season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.