The Cincinnati Bengals don’t like trades at the NFL trade deadline.
It’s a poorly kept secret, perhaps to the point GMs from the other 31 teams don’t even bother to pick up the phone and converse with Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin.
In a Joe Burrow era of sweeping changes that break the mold for the organization, this firm stance on the value of draft picks has stubbornly remained the same.
Much will be written this week about newfound excuses too, now that Burrow’s on his massive contract extension and it will become more important than ever to hit on affordable draft picks around him.
But even that is a cop-out.
Look at how Philadephia has separated itself from the rest of the NFC in recent years:
Current veterans on the Eagles roster acquired via trade:
WR AJ Brown for a 1st and 3rd round pick
CB Darius Slay for a 3rd and 5th round pick
S Kevin Byard for a 5th and 6th round pick and S Terrell Edmunds
RB D’Andre Swift for a 4th and swap of 7th round picks
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) October 23, 2023
Nobody is saying go spend a first-round pick on a player. But look at the Kevin Byard deal — the Eagles got an All-Pro for late-round picks and change. In recent years, other teams have gone and traded for the likes of Christian McCaffery.
What makes the stubbornness especially frustrating is that each of these super-valued mid-round picks isn’t going to turn out amazing anyway. Geno Atkins was an anomaly. Notable misses taken in the third-sixth rounds in recent years include:
- Zach Carter
- Tyler Shelvin
- D’Ante Smith
- Khalid Kareem
The list goes on. But trading a pick that can become one of those guys for a win-now reunion with a Samaje Perine or a starting-caliber player to put in the offense over the ineffective Irv Smith Jr. at tight end isn’t asking all that much.
Plus, the Bengals will currently earn two comp picks in 2024, so if the argument is they don’t want to miss out on seven draft picks or more joining the roster, there’s that.
If the Bengals don’t make a trade, they’re relying on things just working out on a whim. They’re rolling the dice on Smith’s consistent injury history and ineffectiveness to solve itself. They’re doing the same at running back, hoping anyone will emerge. They’re even doing it with the pass-rush, risking putting it all on the consistently-aggravated back of Trey Hendrickson yet again.
It would be silly to suggest a trade is guaranteed to work out, of course. A move cost assets, it has to fit the long-term numbers and there’s an onboarding process for the player into the program that doesn’t promise quick help.
But again, we’re talking about moves involving things like fifth rounders to patch up obvious holes. When the difference in games so far and potentially in the playoffs is converting one first down or that little bit of extra pressure, a mid or late-round pick doesn’t seem like too much to ask for a team that has changed the narrative about itself in so many other ways.
