Extending Evan McPherson is hopefully worth every penny for the Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals have extended kicker Evan McPherson, signing him to a three-year deal worth $16.5 million. The news dropped on Friday and Bengals fans are going to be psyched to see the kicker under contract for the foreseeable future.

McPherson -- nicknamed "Money Mac" -- was a fifth-round draft pick in 2021 and it didn't take long for Bengals fans to fall in love with the guy. McPherson nailed the game-winning kick in overtime in his NFL regular-season debut and finished his rookie season with an 84.8 field goal percentage and impressively knocking through nine of 11 field goal attempts that came from 50 yards or further.

McPherson really became a popular name not just in Cincinnati but around the NFL when he helped kick the Bengals into both the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl. In the divisional round against the Titans, McPherson even called his game-winning kick.

While McPherson's field goal percentage hasn't been as high as it was during his rookie year, he's still been a solid kicker, finishing with an 82.8% in 2022 and 83.9% in 2023. He made all 40 extra point attempts in 2023 as well.

Bengals wise to extend Evan McPherson

Kickers might not be the big names in the NFL but teams need above-average ones if they want to win games. Having to go out on the field and kick the game-winner is not an easy situation to be put into but McPherson hasn't blinked when the Bengals have asked him to prevail in those moments. That's why he's getting this deal.

McPherson will be 26 years old when the season starts so there's a chance that this isn't the last deal he gets from Cincinnati, assuming he continues to be clutch in the key moments. The Bengals have a lot of tough decisions about their roster moving forward but keeping McPherson in the stripes was not a tough decision at all. The team needed to make sure he stuck around and now he'll be in Cincinnati for at least a few more years.