Tag: Bengals trades

Bengals should be aggressive in trading up to start Round 2 of the draft

The Bengals should be one of the teams trading up on Friday.

The Cincinnati Bengals have all day Friday and nine draft picks to work with when considering a trade up the order in the second round to start Day 2 of the 2024 NFL draft.

And given the staggering amount of top prospects remaining on the board, Duke Tobin and Co. should be working the phones all day.

There’s simply little reason to sit still at No. 49 and let 16 more prospects come off the board. Not when the team has nine more draft selections and only so many roster spots to go around this summer, anyway.

Grabbing 18th overall pick Amarius Mims was a great way to start, no doubt. But trading up and adding say, defensive lineman Johnny Newton? A guy commonly mocked to the Bengals in the first round?

That’s the type of move a team desperate to widen the contention window would make to secure first-round talents in both trenches.

It’s not like it would cost all that much, either. Here’s a quick look at the trade value chart:

The chart is from before the draft started, of course, yet the values remain the same. If the Bengals wanted to trade up with Buffalo for pick No. 33 (180 points) and give up No. 49 (118) in the process, they would need to make up roughly 60 points. That’s as simple as coughing up one of the two third-rounders and a lesser pick or some combination of lesser picks and next year’s picks.

If one really, really wants to get weird, consider Buffalo’s major need for a wideout:

The Bengals aren’t trading Tee Higgins, but it’s a good example of where things stand as teams work the phones all day. Maybe the trade partner is New England at No. 34 or Arizona at No. 35.

Either way, now doesn’t feel like the time for the Bengals to sit back and be happy the board is falling so nicely when they clutch so much ammunition.

The Bengals have evolved much over the last few years and are open to draft trades more than usual during the Zac Taylor era. Now would be the time to get aggressive in the AFC arms race.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Insider thinks Bengals are team to watch for 1st-round trade

Could the Bengals make a trade in Round 1 on Thursday night?

The Cincinnati Bengals certainly feel like a team that could pull off a first-round trade on Thursday night at the 2024 NFL draft.

Those Bengals have been more open than usual to draft trades since the start of the Zac Taylor era. And sitting at No. 18 overall, it is easy to think the right offer could encourage them to move down the board — or the right prospect falling could even entice them to trade up.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano has added some proverbial fuel to this fire by suggesting the Bengals are a team to watch in late-Round 1 trades:

The Bengals at No. 18 are also worth watching for a potential trade-up. They like Alabama offensive tackle JC Latham a lot and could stand to bolster the line, but they may need to move up to get someone in that tier. Otherwise, watch for Cincinnati to bolster the interior of its defensive line following the offseason departure of defensive tackle DJ Reader via free agency.

This is in no way a report stating that the Bengals are working on a trade or even looking to make one.

But again, it makes a lot of sense from an outsider’s perspective to circle them in red as a trade candidate given the positioning, needs and the fact all teams will do simple due diligence on trades.

If a prospect rated very highly on Duke Tobin’s board falls, then sure, the Bengals could use some of their 10 total picks to move up the board. But a trade back feels more likely because if a handful of their favorite prospects keep falling, moving down and acquiring more assets in the process will have some appeal.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Bengals star DE Trey Hendrickson requests trade

A stunner for the Bengals.

In a pre-draft stunner, Cincinnati Bengals star defensive end Trey Hendrickson has requested a trade.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the request comes due to contract concerns: “Hendrickson is due to make $15 million this season and is looking for more long-term security than Cincinnati has been willing to offer.”

The Bengals restructured Hendrickson’s contract one year in order to better match his pay to his production. But player and/or agent would like more years and given the trade request, it seems that isn’t on the table right now.

Hendrickson joins Tee Higgins as the second Bengals star to request a trade this offseason.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

ESPN suggests the ideal Tee Higgins trade partner for Bengals

Here’s an interesting Tee Higgins trade idea.

The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t going to trade wide receiver Tee Higgins, something the organization and reports have made adamantly clear for a while now.

That is, unless a stunning offer comes through.

While it might not be a stunning offer that encourages the Bengals to do a deal, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell did make a nice argument for why the Arizona Cardinals might want to cough up the 27th pick for Higgins:

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Want to build a devastating receiving corps in one day? Take Marvin Harrison Jr. with the No. 4 pick, then trade this selection for Higgins. With Harrison on a rookie deal for the next four years and Trey McBride still on one for two more seasons, the Cardinals could give Higgins an extension and roll out Harrison, Higgins and McBride as the three top playmakers in their passing attack for Kyler Murray. That’s a fun group, even amid stiff competition for that title in the NFC West.

It’s certainly not the worst idea from a Bengals slant, either. With that move, the Bengals shake free of the need for a market-resetting contract for Higgins and can give one to Ja’Marr Chase.

More importantly (because doing a long-term deal with Higgins might not be as hard as outsiders think), it gives the Bengals another top-30 pick to hit on key needs, such as the trenches on both sides of the ball.

Again, a Higgins trade is unlikely and possibly ill-advised. But a first-round pick is the type of return that might give the front office at Paycor Stadium at least a momentary pause.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

How does Bills trading Stefon Diggs impact Tee Higgins, Bengals?

Does the Stefon Diggs trade impact the Bengals and Tee Higgins at all?

Inevitably, there are going to be some comparisons between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills right about now considering how they’ve handled their star wide receivers.

The Bengals remain in a mini-standoff with franchise-tagged star Tee Higgins. Those Bills just pulled off a stunner of a trade, sending Stefon Diggs and two draft picks to the Houston Texans in exchange for a 2025 second-round pick.

But for those who think the trade might signal that Higgins is worth quite a bit more on the trade market, that isn’t necessarily the case.

All it might mean is the Bengals have picked the right course of action.

Most of it comes down to the Bills just wanting to get out of the Diggs situation entirely. It was clear even to outsiders that the relationship between player and team soured, hence Buffalo being willing to eat this much cap space just to get him out of town:

To top it off, Diggs is going into his age-31 season, so the Bills shipping him off right in the middle of Josh Allen’s prime, and what the franchise hopes is a contention window, seems to say quite a bit.

Higgins, on the other hand, is just 25 years old with a pair of 1,000-yard seasons to his name already and hints of further upside as a possible No. 1 when he’s not sharing the targets with Ja’Marr Chase. There are availability concerns, but the acquiring team would likely sign him to a long-term extension.

The thing is, teams aren’t going to offer much better than what the Bills just got for Diggs. Clubs aren’t blind — Higgins is the long-term better option for the next three-plus years at a minimum, injury history aside. But when players like Diggs are available, when names like A.J. Brown get traded, names like Tyler Boyd remain free agents this deep into the market and a historic-looking wideout draft class is on the way, there’s no sense in coughing up a first-round pick.

The Bengals, it seems, have played it well. If a team really wants Higgins, it’ll offer more than what the Bills got for Diggs. Meaning a first-rounder at a minimum. And if not, Higgins will play next year on the tag with the looming threat of a double-tag (costly, but the cap keeps dramatically rising) hanging over long-term negotiations.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

B/R proposes Bengals make a splash with trade for WR

Should the Bengals make a trade for a veteran WR?

The Cincinnati Bengals have a quiet need at wide receiver that has nothing to do with the Tee Higgins situation.

Those Bengals, after all, franchise tagged Higgins and could do so again in a year’s time if the standoff continues.

Where the Bengals have more of a concern at this point is in the third wideout slot previously occupied by Tyler Boyd. That’s something Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton proposes the Bengals address by trading for Seattle Seahawks wideout Tyler Lockett:

The Seattle Seahawks’ new regime may view Tyler Lockett as an expendable asset with 2023 first-rounder Jaxon Smith-Njigba behind him on the depth chart…

…At 31 years old, the three-time All-Pro could be highly productive as the primary slot wideout. He’s racked up at least 894 receiving yards in six consecutive terms.

The Bengals are usually a little shy about going after veterans who are 30-plus years old and Lockett would be especially surprising given his $18.5 million cap hit in 2024.

That said, Lockett is quite fitting in terms of what the Bengals want from the slot. New tight end Mike Gesicki fills some of that desire to run more under-center looks with Joe Burrow, but the team also wants to get quicker there than they were with Tyler Boyd — and sophomores Charlie Jones and Andrei Iosivas don’t necessarily fulfill that.

In short, the Bengals seem likely to draft a speedy wideout to fill that slot role in certain packages, though it will be interesting to see if they do consider something like moving a fifth-round pick for a veteran around the draft, too.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Bengals ‘willing to listen’ on Tee Higgins trade, per report

An update on the Tee Higgins trade request and where the Bengals stand.

The Cincinnati Bengals, unsurprisingly, won’t ignore the phone if teams call about a Tee Higgins trade.

Saturday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler appeared on “SportsCenter” and said the Bengals have been open to calls on that subject (h/t Adam Wells of Bleacher Report):

“He wants out, he has made the trade request. I talked to a few teams who are interested who believe that the Bengals are at least willing to listen. That’s a little softer than they might have been a year ago where they definitely were not trading him. So, teams are going to try to pry him out. New England’s been high-end shopping for receiver help, perhaps they try to give up a Day 2 pick to get Higgins.”

The Bengals applied the $21.7 million franchise tag to Higgins early in the process and ahead of the scouting combine, though Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin attributed the quick tag to the increase in the NFL’s salary cap and not a desire to talk trades.

A report after the Bengals tagged Higgins said they didn’t hear much about a trade from other teams at the combine. The Carolina Panthers, a team that stockpiled extra draft picks recently, reportedly hasn’t contacted Cincinnati about Higgins.

Still, how the Bengals have talked about a Higgins trade compared to just one season ago is quite different and listening to what other teams might be willing to give up would make sense.

The looming threat of a second franchise tag next offseason after the dramatic salary cap increase could be an interesting factor to remember in the background here. The Bengals and Higgins have until mid-July to work out a contract extension, otherwise he’ll play the season on the tag.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Bengals surprise by trading Joe Mixon to Texans

The Bengals have traded Joe Mixon to the Texans.

The Cincinnati Bengals have had a change of plans.

Instead of releasing running back Joe Mixon after agreeing to sign free agent Zack Moss, the Bengals are trading him away.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Bengals will trade Mixon to the Houston Texans.

The news comes on the heels of reports the Bengals will outright release Mixon after signing Moss. And while the cap savings should largely remain the same either way, the Bengals will get something immediate back in return for Mixon’s departure — and they ship him to a great situation, with Houston back-needy and on the rise with C.J. Stroud under center, plus the Texans inherit his contract, meaning he’ll get the bonuses and numbers he would’ve otherwise lost via being cut.

Cincinnati outbid the Dallas Cowboys for Moss and saved cap space with the departure of Mixon. Now, they get additional compensation for his departure, too.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Bengals didn’t get Tee Higgins trade calls after franchise tag, per report

A report reveals that no teams have called the Bengals about trading for Tee Higgins.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins has requested a trade, though no other teams have previously approached the Bengals about a deal.

According to a report from Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, zero teams called the Bengals about a deal after the team applied the franchise tag to the star wideout.

Florio wrote the following: “Per a source with knowledge of the situation, that hadn’t happened before today. The Bengals hadn’t even gotten a call about a potential trade.”

The Bengals talked differently about Higgins’ future with the team at the combine than they have in the past, though Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin shot down the idea that the quick timing of the franchise tag had anything to do with wanting to trade him.

Perhaps part of the reason no team approached the Bengals is their reputation as stubborn in trade talks. But part of it is undoubtedly the asking price, too, as the Bengals figure to want roughly a first-round pick in exchange if they’re willing to deal Higgins — the trading team would have to cough up that and a potentially market-resetting extension.

As always mentioned, the Bengals and Higgins have until July 15 to reach a long-term extension, or he’ll play on the tag next season, barring a shocking trade development.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Bengals WR Tee Higgins requests trade ahead of free agency

Tee Higgins requests a trade.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins has requested a trade.

Roughly two hours before the “legal tampering” window of free agency opened on Monday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the following:

Bengals franchise WR Tee Higgins has requested a trade, per sources. Higgins loves Cincinnati and hoped to be with the team long term, but is disappointed that the team has not had any talks about a long-term contract extension since March 2023. He’s ready to move on to a new home.

The Bengals applied the franchise tag to Higgins before the scouting combine and currently have until July 15 to work out a long-term extension with the star wide receiver.

Cincinnati’s quick usage of the $21.8 million franchise tag near the end of February seemed to suggest the team might be open to a trade. But Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin pushed back against that idea at the combine, saying the timing had more to do with the dramatic leap of the salary cap.

Higgins has remained adamant that he would like to remain with the team and Joe Burrow’s latest comments on the franchise tag echo the same sentiment.

Though this has consistently felt like a Jessie Bates situation for the Bengals, a trade request and the timing of it is a new wrinkle. Higgins would have to sign the tag to let a trade go through or a holdout could stretch into the summer.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]