Bengals reward Jake Browning with two-year contract to keep him in Cincinnati through 2025
Jake Browning will remain with the Cincinnati Bengals for the next two seasons as the team’s No. 2 quarterback behind Joe Burrow. The team announced Tuesday morning they signed Browning to a two-year deal keeping him with the franchise through 2025.
Browning, 28, started seven games for the Bengals last season in place of Burrow after he suffered a season-ending wrist injury in mid-November. With Browning under center, the Bengals went 4-3 down the stretch. He completed 171 of 243 passes (70.4 percent) for 1936 yards and 12 touchdowns and this performance caught the attention of the entire NFL.
The former University of Washington product started his career as a practice squad player in 2021 before earning the backup job in training camp ahead of the 2023 season. Following the season, Browning was an exclusive rights free agent which means he is a player with two or fewer accrued seasons on an expiring contact.
As an exclusive rights free agent unlike an unrestricted free agent, the Bengals had the rights to keep Browning in house once they extended a qualifying offer. This means the player is given a one-year contract at the league minimum salary based on experience level. In this case with the Bengals, they showed their desire to keep Browning for two years and reward him for his play by extended the offer an extra year.
If the Bengals opted not to extend the qualifying offer to Browning, he would have been free to hit the open market where he likely would have had plenty of suitors based off the need to have an experienced backup quarterback in today’s NFL.
Now that Browning has officially signed the two-year deal, the Bengals will move forward with their No. 1 and 2 quarterbacks set for the next seasons in Burrow and Browning.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bengals sign quarterback Jake Browning to extension
