The Arizona Cardinals have more than one decision to make on the offensive line. The biggest is dealing with left tackle D.J. Humphries, who is scheduled to become a free agent.
However, Humphries isn’t the only lineman who will be a free agent. The other is starting center A.Q. Shipley.
Shipley started every game and played over 99 percent of the team’s offensive snaps in 2019. He was very good as a leader and as a pass blocker. According to ESPN’s stats for pass-blocking win rate, he was the fifth-best center in the league, winning 96% of his pass-blocking matchups.
He has been in the league 10 years and will turn 33 this year but he doesn’t think he is done.
“I still think I’ve got a few more years (left),” he told reporters the final week of the season, according to Kyler Odegard of the official team site. Missing 2018 with an ACL tear helped his body, he said.
He would like to finish his career in Arizona. Of course, the team has two young centers already under contract. Mason Cole is a player Kliff Kingsbury trusts and who started all 16 games as a rookie in 2018, and they drafted Lamont Gaillard in 2019 as well.
But the team apparently would like to have him back.
Shipley and the team have begun contract talks, according to The Athletic’s Scott Bordow.
The Cardinals have begun preliminary contract extension talks with center A.Q. Shipley. I would expect the two sides to reach a deal fairly quickly. Shipley said today he wants to finish his career here
— scott bordow (@sbordow) December 30, 2019
If his contract is extended, it would give the Cardinals their offensive interior at least one more year together to protect Kyler Murray and drive the running game.
How much will it take to agree to a deal? A two-year extension worth $4 million, with $1 million up front should do the trick nicely.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.
Ep. 254
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Ep. 253:
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