Browns coach Mike Pettine has talked about having big plans for linebacker Jabaal Sheard this season and those plans appear to extend into the team’s front office as well.
Sheard told reporters that he has had talks with the team about a contract extension that would keep him in Cleveland for the long term. Sheard is set to make just under $1 million in 2014, the final year of the contract he signed as a second-round pick in 2011.
“Hopefully it works out. Love it here, want to be here when [the] city erupts,” Sheard said, via Scott Petrak of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
Sheard has started 45 of 48 games since joining the Browns, recording 21 sacks while flopping between four and three-man fronts as the Browns flopped between different regimes. Based on Pettine’s results with the Bills last year, the current one could be a good one for Sheard and the other Browns pass rushers. That might mean Sheard leaves a bit of money on the table by signing an extension before things play out, but his comments suggest that a bird in hand is good enough for him.