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're spending this week looking at a number of issues regarding the team's free-agency philosophy.
We started Monday by asking about how valuable receiver A.J. Green is to the franchise. Tuesday provided a reminder of how important rollover money was to Cincinnati's ability to hammer out preseason extensions.
We continue by taking a look at where the Bengals turn in free agency after Green:
Once Green is done, who's next?
As we've mentioned all week, the Bengals would be best served getting Green to the table as quickly as possible to get an extension done. Based off some of what Bengals coaches and team president Mike Brown said during Tuesday's kickoff luncheon, the organization clearly realizes that, too. Those in team leadership proudly point out the Bengals' history of getting big preseason deals done. Geno Atkins, Andy Dalton and Vontaze Burfict are three Bengals whose contracts were renewed in the days entering the last two regular seasons.
But assuming Green's new contract gets done first, where then do the Bengals turn? Some of that may depend upon the timing of the deal. While negotiations with other pending free agents certainly can occur parallel to Green's, it seems most likely that his extension would precede anything that happens with any other player.
The reason timing is important is because like we mentioned earlier this week, the Bengals have no plans of dragging contract negotiations into the regular season. They don't want the potential distraction of contract talks looming over their players' heads once the year starts. Any forthcoming deals will be done before the Bengals board the plane for Oakland for the season opener.
After Green, the Bengals could use their rollover money to lock down any number of other pending free agents. Maybe they focus on Marvin Jones? That seems unlikely, given the fact he didn't play a down last season while dealing with foot and ankle injuries. Since they haven't seen him in a game scenario since 2013, this might not be the ideal time for the team to engage in long-term discussions with Jones.
What about George Iloka? Statistically, he was considered one of the top safeties in the NFL last season. A case could be made he was a Pro Bowl snub. Although he has a cap charge this season that is more than twice what he made last year -- that's thanks to performance-based escalators and incentives -- this still could be a good time to keep Iloka in stripes before other teams get to looking at him next spring.
Defensive tackle Brandon Thompson and linebacker Vincent Rey won't be the biggest-name soon-to-be free agents the Bengals extend, but preseason deals for them could make sense. Although troubled at times by injury, Thompson has been a valued run-stopper and Rey has been a solid backup, filling in for injured stars at his position. Off the bench, Rey led the team in tackles last season.
Adam Jones, Leon Hall, Reggie Nelson, Andre Smith and Andrew Whitworth are veterans in their 30s who are other extension possibilities. Typically, preseason renewals go to younger rising stars whose age makes them more viable options for longer deals.