Washington Stays With Bills

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 2, 1998 / 12:00 AM EST / CBS Sportsline

Ted Washington will remain with the Buffalo Bills
under a five-year package worth more than $27 million rather than shop himself to the rest of the NFL, according to a published report.

The Pro Bowl nose tackle's contract includes a franchise-record signing bonus of $6.5 million, The Buffalo News reported Monday. It also provides for Washington, who turns 30 next month, to receive about 70 percent of his money in the first three years.

Washington became the third-highest-paid defensive lineman Monday.

Bills general manager John Butler and Washington's agent, Angelo Wright, began intense negotiations late last week after the NFL Players Association and the league's Management Council announced a settlement that replaced the Bills' franchise label on Washington with a less restrictive transition tag, the News said.

Washington's contract, the richest in team history, averages slightly more than $5.4 million per season and surpasses the six-year, $28.2-million contract defensive end Bruce Smith signed last year.

Until Washington's signing bonus, Smith's $6 million bonus was the most ever paid by the Bills.

The deal also makes Washington the third-highest-paid defensive lineman in the NFL, behind John Randle of Minnesota and Dana Stubblefield of Washington.

If the Bills failed to match any offer Washington received as a franchise player, they were entitled to a first-round draft pick this year and in 1999. If they failed to do so under his transition label, they would get a second-round pick this year or next, at the offering club's discretion, plus compensatory picks from the league.

The Bills signed Washington as a free agent from Denver in 1995. Because of his desire to remain in Buffalo, he encouraged Wright to work out a deal with the Bills before he began looking elsewhere in earnest.