Why Extending LB Logan Wilson Was the Right Move for the Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals have agreed to terms with linebacker Logan Wilson on a four-year contract extension, a league source has confirmed. The agreement was first reported by the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Wilson will sign the deal to make it official Saturday morning, per a team source.

Cincinnati Bengals Extend LB Logan Wilson

The 2020 third-round pick is the second Bengals defensive player to sign an extension since camp began, with defensive end Trey Hendrickson getting a one-year, $21 million extension last week.

Extending Wilson is hardly a surprise, but the timing of it is with quarterback Joe Burrow still awaiting a new deal that is expected to make him the highest-paid player in the league in terms of annual average salary.

It seemed throughout the entire offseason that the Burrow deal would be the top priority and set the course for what the Bengals could or couldn’t afford after the ink dried.

Wide receiver Tee Higgins, the second-round pick in 2020 sandwiched between Burrow and Wilson, is also looking for an extension to stay in Cincinnati beyond this season.

Wilson’s deal is worth up to $37.3 million and is further proof of the franchise’s commitment to culture and rewarding their own. And the linebacker is too valuable to Lou Anarumo’s defense to settle into a contractual pecking order.

“They’re all great guys that we love having and want to have for a while, a long time on our team,” Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn said at the owners meetings in Phoenix in March.

“We’ll be looking at all of the options and alternatives and thinking about what we might be able to get done.”

Not fitting Wilson into the puzzle at such a reasonable number never should have been an option, even after signing Germaine Pratt, the team’s other starting linebacker, to a three-year, $20.3 million contract in March.

Aside from the Burrow/Higgins/Wilson extensions, the biggest storyline of the offseason has been how the Bengals will replace safeties Vonn Bell and Jessie Bates after they played side by side for nearly every snap the last three years.

The chemistry and connection between Wilson and Pratt has even greater value after Bell and Bates left for the Panthers and Falcons, respectively.

After starting just two games as a rookie, Wilson and Pratt played huge roles in the 2021 postseason as the defense drove the run to Super Bowl LVI. After leading the team and sharing the NFL lead among linebackers with four interceptions, Wilson added a fifth to set up the game-winning field goal in the Divisional Round playoff game at Tennessee — the first Bengals road postseason win in franchise history.

And his pass defense against All-Pro wide receiver Cooper Kupp in the waning seconds of Super Bowl LVI would have forced the Rams into a last-ditch 4th-and-goal play from the 8-yard line had it not been for a questionable and heavily debated defensive holding penalty.

In last year’s Wild Card playoff game, there is no Sam Hubbard “Fumble in the Jungle” 98-yard touchdown without Wilson first punching the ball free from quarterback Snoop Huntley at the goal line.

Wilson isn’t the Bengals’ most vocal or recognizable player on defense, but he’s the heart of it. And with the team already committing $64 million to Orlando Brown Jr. this spring, plus the expected market-altering extension for Burrow, a possible one for Higgins, and another mammoth deal for Ja’Marr Chase in 2024, keeping quality and continuity on a defense loaded with youngsters on their rookie deals is the right move.