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The Cleveland Browns and center JC Tretter have agreed on a three-year contract extension.
The deal, which is worth $32.5 million with more than $23 million in guaranteed money, was first reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:
Sources: The #Browns and center JC Tretter are in agreement on a three-year, $32.5M extension that includes more than $23M guaranteed. Quietly, he’s playing his best football and is among the best in football. Tretter, by the way, went to Cornell, ever heard of it?
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 7, 2019
Tretter signed with the Browns as an unrestricted free agent in 2017. He has yet to miss a start with the Browns, even though he could not practice at times last season due to a high ankle sprain.
Through it all he has been one of the league’s best at his position, especially in pure pass sets, as Pro Football Focus highlighted after the 2018 season:
Tying Ducasse’s 81.8 grade in pure pass sets was Cleveland’s center, J.C. Tretter. He allowed only eight pressures on 189 snaps for a 4.2% pressure rate in pure passing situations last season. Overall, Tretter put together a career year in terms of pass protection and allowed just 14 total pressures on 694 pass-blocking snaps at center. This was his fourth straight season with an 80.0-plus pass blocking grade, and his second straight season with over 1,000 total snaps played.
Tretter brings tremendous value physically and mentally. When I polled Browns players in the spring, they almost universally named him as the smartest on the team. PFF rankings:
— Nick Shook (@TheNickShook) November 7, 2019
• 8th-best overall-graded C
• 9th-best pass-blocking OL (2nd-best C)
• 16th-best run-blocking C https://t.co/ToCW0udsKx
Tretter and left guard Joel Bitonio have been the only reliable members of the offensive line this season and now they are both signed through the 2022 season, which should make quarterback Baker Mayfield sleep a little more soundly at night.
Now if general manager John Dorsey can get the rest of the offensive line worked out in the upcoming offseason, the Browns may be ready for the offense to really take off.