CINCINNATI -- With more than a dozen of their key starters and reserves eligible for free agency after this season, the Cincinnati Bengals will soon be confronted with several important personnel decisions.

Some of those decisions could be made during training camp. Others may not come until next March.

To give you an idea of just how the Bengals might approach re-signing or extending the many players who are entering contract seasons, we'll spend this week looking at a number of issues regarding the team's free-agency philosophy.

We start by posing the most pressing free-agent question Bengals fans have:

How valuable is A.J. Green to the franchise?

Based on recent conversations with those inside the organization, one fact rings true: The Bengals really like Green. They want him to stay in stripes for a very long time, and they believe he will ultimately do that.

None of that should come as a surprise. After all, Green has been to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons. In those same seasons, he has been one of two NFL receivers to end each year with 1,000 yards receiving and five touchdowns, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The other is Calvin Johnson, the league's highest-paid wide out.

Clearly, Green deserves a massive new payday, and the Bengals plan on giving it to him.

The big question, though, is when? When will the Bengals reward their star with a second contract that many expect to hover in the neighborhood of the five-year, $70 million deals Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas reached two weeks ago?

One Bengals source said the answer lies with Green.

The team is "happy to have that [new contract] discussion now" with Green, the source said. It's the same stance the organization has for other pending free agents. Naturally, within all of those discussions has to be balance regarding the money the team has relative to what it can afford to give each upcoming free agent it believes it can re-sign. We'll look at some that money in another post later this week.

In terms of having a discussion about an extension right now with Green, the Bengals don't yet fully know what has been on the receiver's mind. For all the team knows, Green may really just want to wait until after the season to get a new deal done. Bengals management should get a better idea of what he's thinking later this week when Green reports for training camp Thursday with other veterans.

What we do know is that Green isn't too concerned about the immediacy of his new deal. Earlier this month, during his football camp for kids around Cincinnati, he said he had no problem waiting until after this season to talk to the team about locking him up long term. Those comments came about a week before Bryant and Thomas got their deals that helped set the market for top-end receiver value. This past weekend, Green, a South Carolina native, echoed his previous sentiments to one of his home state television stations, but he added that he knows his "time is coming."

Although slated to make $10.18 million this season as he exercises his fifth-year option, Green was just the 14th-highest paid receiver last season (cap charge of $6.26 million), as he played out the final year of his original rookie deal.

The Bengals know a big contract is coming for Green, and they are "happy" to sign it. But again, he's just one of several players they will be meeting with them in the coming months.