Despite Preston Brown‘s initial Bengals season ending prematurely, the veteran middle linebacker will stay in Cincinnati.
Brown and the Bengals agreed to terms on another contract Tuesday, Diana Russini of ESPN.com tweets. Brown joined the Bengals on a one-year, $4MM pact last offseason, though he had hoped for a multi-year deal from his original club, the Bills. Buffalo drafted him in the third round of the 2014 draft, and he had a strong season in 2017, leading the league in tackles while playing the third-most defensive snaps (1,180) of any linebacker in the NFL.
But he did not have much success on the open market in 2018, and he chose to join his hometown Bengals on a modest deal. Prior to signing with Cincinnati, he had never missed a game due to injury, and he started 62 of a possible 64 games during his tenure with the Bills.
However, he was limited by injury in 2018, and he was placed on IR in November. Brown is currently penciled in as the Bengals’ middle linebacker, though as Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com writes, his signing does not preclude the team from trying to upgrade the position.
Rory Parks contributed to this post.