No. 1 draft pick Carter agrees to $19.2 million deal with Cincinnati Bengals

Jet, August 7, 1995

Ki-Jana Carter, the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, recently agreed to a seven-year contract worth $19.2 million with the Cincinnati Bengals.

The contract includes a $7.1 million signing bonus - the largest ever for a rookie.

Carter, a star tailback out of Penn State, signed the deal and immediately reported to training camp in Wilmington, OH.

"Money's not going to change me. I'm glad to be here," Carter said from camp.

The pact also includes $2.8 million in incentives and three "voidable years" likely to reduce it to a four-year deal, leaving Carter a free agent by 1999.

But the annual breakdown of his salary reportedly goes as follows: $757,000 in 1995, then $946,000 in 1996, 1.1 million in 1997, $1.3 million in 1998, $1.5 million in 1999, $1.7 million in 2000 and $1.8 million in 2001.