CINCINNATI — Andy Dalton is relieved. So are the Cincinnati Bengals.
Everyone was all smiles around Bengals camp on Monday when the team made Dalton one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.
Dalton signed a six-year extension, but the financial terms were not released. According to multiple reports, the deal is worth up to $115 million.
“We’re betting big on him because we believe in him,” Bengals owner Mike Brown said.
Dalton said now that the deal is done he can concentrate solely on football.
“You do have it in the back of your mind, when is it going to get done,” Dalton said. “Now we don’t have to worry about it. Like (coach) Marvin (Lewis) said, just play the game and I don’t have to have this hanging over me.”
The quarterback has passed for more than 3,000 yards in each of his three seasons. He led the Bengals to an 11-5 record and AFC North title in 2013. He set career highs with 33 touchdown passes and 20 interceptions.
Dalton was a second-round draft choice in 2011.
Dalton has been criticized for throwing six interceptions with only one touchdown in three postseason losses. Lewis said Dalton is still improving.
“It’s stating the obvious that this is a key move for the ongoing success of our team,” Lewis said. “I congratulate our front office, and Andy and his representatives, for coming together to make this happen in a constructive way for the football team.”
Back injury ends Giants RB Wilson’s career
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — New York Giants running back David Wilson’s NFL career is over because of a back injury.
The 23-year-old Wilson was told by doctors Monday that he risked more serious problems if he kept playing. He underwent fusion surgery to repair vertebrae and a herniated disk in his neck in January. At practice last Tuesday, he caught a pass and ran with his head down into the back of an offensive lineman, a hit that caused numbness in his hands and lower extremities.
He missed the last 11 games last season after being diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal cord.
Wilson says: “I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me, or pity me. I lived my dream.”
The 2012 first-round pick played two seasons with the Giants.
By wire sources