Carlos Dunlap talks about contract situation with Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals have yet to extend defensive end, Carlos Dunlap, as he enters the final season of his contract. Dunlap doesn’t seem worried.

The only Cincinnati Bengals player sitting out of OTA workouts the last two weeks has been defensive end, Carlos Dunlap. A veteran of Dunlap’s caliber missing voluntary workouts is nothing to stress over as it happens all around the league. Probably the only reason it’s even making the headlines is considering Dunlap is in the final year of his respected contract and is missing out on workout bonuses.

Even if Dunlap was with the team at voluntary workouts, he would likely not be seeing too many snaps. There’s also the chance of getting hurt during these workouts as we have seen around the league including Los Angeles Chargers tight end Hunter Henry tearing his ACL and will miss the entire 2018 season. Dunlap has continued to work out away from the team and will likely attend the mandatory workouts.

Scott Eisberg of WCIV in Charleston was able to catch up with Dunlap at his camp and the veteran seemed to not be worried about a new contract just yet. Of course, Dunlap wouldn’t just come out to the media and say if he was, but the team has made it known they would like to get a deal done with him and defensive tackle Geno Atkins this offseason. It’s not surprising that the talks haven’t happened yet with all the camps going on.

“I’m not worried about the contract yet man. You just go out there and you play football. The film that I put out there already speaks for itself, I feel like I’ve already earned the respect of my peers…I’m just going to continue to put good film out there and let whatever happens happen.”

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Cincinnati and Dunlap’s agent will have plenty of time between mandatory camps and training camp to sit down and talk about a new deal. That’s when the conversation is expected to happen. Following the free agency period and draft process, the team is focused on camps. There will now be a month-long period the two can sit down and talk without too many distractions. If a deal gets done before the start of the regular season, I would expect to hear about it around the time of training camp.