Bengals Beat: Ted Karras Extended Through 2026, Zac Taylor Wants Bengals To ‘Win Games Because Of Situational Mastership’

CINCINNATI — No one loves playing in Cincinnati more than Ted Karras. And now he’ll get that chance to do so through the 2026 season.

Karras signed on the dotted line Friday for a one-year extension, remaining Joe Burrow’s center for the next two seasons. Karras will make $6 million this season.

The 32-year-old center made it clear Friday that there isn’t a place in the NFL he’d rather be than Cincinnati.

“I don’t think much about retirement, just because what’s the old adage? Once you think about it, you’re already there. So I’m open to the realm of all possibilities. I love this town very much. It’s been the most generous, welcoming, fun town that I’ve ever lived in,” Karras told me. “I’ve lived in 17 towns around this or across this country, so this is my favorite one. And I’m really, really proud to be here, be a Bengal, be a part of this organization, and really doing whatever we can to go and win week one for the city.”

“He exemplifies the way we want things done, in terms of going about his job the right way every single day,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “I know what kind of energy I’m going to get from Ted. I know what kind of preparedness we’re gonna get from Ted, the team bonding stuff. I think he and Orlando have both done great jobs on their own, you know, creating the team camaraderie that I’ve asked for. And his level play has been really good. And again, he’s one of our hardest practice players, walk through players, game players, and so it’s good to reward that.”

Karras, one of four offensive team captains with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Orlando Brown Jr., is entering his fourth season with the Bengals and still has dreams of raising that first Vince Lombardi trophy for the Bengals, after winning twice in New England (2016, 2018). Friday’s signing gives the Illinois product some security heading into his tenth season in the NFL.

“Marginally, I guess if you look at the history of my career, I’m not afraid to be a free agent,” Karras said. “I’ve been a free agent many times, but I really wanted to be a part of the plan here. And I know we’re gonna, you know, have big things ahead of us, so I want to be here for or when we when we hoist that trophy.”

His time in Cincinnati began with a massive 10-game win streak in 2022 before missing out the last two seasons. But off the field, Karras has hit his stride in philanthropy with his Cincy Hats venture to benefit the Village of Merici to support and place disabled adults in the work place and in housing.

“I think it’s very much exceeded any expectations I had,” Karras added. “I think back to 2016 before the draft didn’t really know it was gonna go on and to sign on to year 11 in a town that’s so amazing, is really something special. Very grateful.”

Karras said Friday’s extension has been in the works since the spring.

“I’ve just been bringing it up, and I really am grateful to the Brown family, to the Blackburn family,” Karras said. “Duke (Tobin) has been awesome to work with, and really was something I wanted to get done before the season started. And they were very accommodating. I’m very, very happy with how it worked out.”

SITUATIONAL MANAGEMENT:
As part of an effort to bring his team closer together and also improve upon situational game awareness of his players and coaches from last season, Zac Taylor had his players give oral presentations in the offseason on what they would do if presented with a certain game scenario.

“Situational football, I’d be hard pressed to imagine people talk about it more than we do,” Taylor said Friday. “Maybe they do. It’s hard to know but we spent a lot of time on it. Our players got up and presented situations over the course of the spring and in training camp, I assigned different players different situations. And so, they’ve heard it from me. They’ve heard it from other coaches in front of the room. And then the players got up there and came from their voice, which just, I think, as many different ways you can hear it, we emphasize it, and we walk through only days that just covers many situations we can we always implement them, typically in training camp.

“At the end of every walkthrough, we have a two different situations we’re going to hit, so we’ll watch them (Saturday), Sam (Francis) and the coordinators and myself, and we’ll watch a bunch of situations that have come up in training camp. And I talk about situations a lot. We talk, we watch it a lot. We want to win games because of our situational mastership.”

“I liked Jordan Battle’s,” Karras said of the safety’s presentation. “I thought he was pretty good. He was entertaining, at least, at least brought the energy. Mine was umpire alert. So, say there’s a 10 second runoff towards the end of the half or end of the game, and the clock’s gonna wind on the snap. If we have less than three seconds, I have to snap it on the whistle. If we have more than three seconds, it’s going to be a quick cadence, but we have to snap the ball because the clock’s starting. It’s an in depth situation. Mine was kind of serious. I wasn’t really, I wasn’t funny in mine, yeah, yeah. But that’s going to help, I mean, that’s going to come up.

“It is all the situations that are going to come up. And especially Week 1, it’s going to be a huge adjustment game. And we’re ready to go. We’ve got a great camp, great week of practice. You know, we’re going to go up against a good team and win.”

Taylor gave a little insight to what they’re like and how Sam Francis in the analytics department helps. This was an area Taylor and the Bengals identified as a deficiency they could improve up on in 2025.

“Could be to beat a challenge. What’s our call on defense? Give some clips of examples where it’s going to come up. Okay, we just converted up third-and-7, and we reached across the line and they gave it to us, and we’re not sure we got it. So what’s our mechanism to get on the ball and beat the challenge defensively. What’s our call if the offense is doing that? When are situations where they’re gonna try to bait you off side? Because they know this is no-snap, no-play situation.

“So instead of me getting up there and talking, there’s 100 of them, just assign them to the players. I would typically watch it with some of the players, their position coach would go through with them, and then they’d present it to the team.”