By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bengals management apparently will not stand in Jon Kitna's way for a playing-time incentive.

Kitna will start at quarterback Sunday at Buffalo. He is on pace to play the 80 percent of offensive snaps he needs to earn an additional $1.625 million next season. His base salary will be $1 million.

The Bengals have averaged 67 offensive plays per game, and they ran 81 in Sunday's 20-13 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

Kitna has played 787 of the team's 999 offensive plays this season - 78.8 percent.

The Bengals need to have 61 offensive plays, with Kitna on the field for all of them, to reach exactly 80 percent. The 61 plays would give Kitna 848 snaps of 1,060.

Kitna could miss one play, which he did at Pittsburgh because he had his bell rung, if the Bengals run 66 or more plays Sunday.

Indications are the Bengals will stick to the 80-percent mark and not round up if Kitna finishes with 79.5 percent or more of the plays. But the feeling around the club is coaches, not management, will decide who plays quarterback.

Kitna didn't start the Bengals' first four games. Gus Frerotte was the starter in the first three, and Akili Smith started Game4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (a 35-7 Bengals loss).

Kitna has started 11 games, and thrown 16 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions. He needs just 63 passing yards Sunday to reach 3,000 for the second time in two seasons.

The last Bengals quarterback to throw for 3,000 or more yards in consecutive seasons was Jeff Blake in 1995 and 1996.

Bengals president Mike Brown declined Monday to comment on Kitna.

Players were off for the third consecutive Monday, and Kitna wasn't available for comment. In recent weeks, he has said he will play and reach the incentive mark if God wants him to do so. Players and coaches meet today to install the game plan.

Speculation that Kitna would be pulled grew when the Bengals signed quarterback Joe Germaine to a three-year contract Dec.12. But Germaine has been inactive the past two games.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com