Cardinals sign center A.Q. Shipley to one-year contract extension

The Arizona Cardinals and center A.Q. Shipley have agreed to a contract extension, the team announced Friday.

The one-year extension keeps the veteran lineman under contract until 2019. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the deal is worth $2 million including incentives.

“This didn’t come off his injury, Steve Keim and I talked about it in the spring and he’s a major part of what we were doing at the time,” head coach Steve Wilks said Friday of the center. “He’s a leader in that room, I still consider him to be a leader in that room.

“His presence and value of being around is only going to enhance and help Mason [Cole] out, which I think is important and as an organization we wanted to do the right thing.”

The 32-year-old took to Twitter following the news of the deal.

I cant say enough good things about the @AZCardinals organization. I just want to say thank you to the Bidwill family, Steve Keim, Coach Steve Wilks and the entire Cardinals organization for giving me an opportunity to continue playing the game that I love.

— AQ Shipley (@aqshipley) August 24, 2018

Shipley went down with an ACL tear during the team’s Red & White practice.

Before the injury, Shipley was considered one of the most durable players on the team.

The center started all 16 games in each of the past two seasons and in 2017 was the only Cardinals offensive lineman to remain healthy for the entire year.

“As I mentioned a couple days ago, [Shipley’s] a tremendous leader, hard worker,” Wilks said of the lineman following his injury. “When you talk about the DNA that I look for, a guy that loves the game, very passionate, gritty, really was a leader up front.”

In Shipley’s absence, rookie Mason Cole has seen added work with the first team offense, while Evan Boehm has also seen more reps.

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