When, if Ever, Have the Cincinnati Bengals Won a Draft-Day Trade?

CINCINNATI – When it comes to NFL Draft trades, much of the debate centers on which teams could be coming up and which are willing to move back in the first round.

But not only is the second round when the wheeling and dealing really heats up, but that’s when the Cincinnati Bengals prefer to join the fray.

During the last seven drafts, the Bengals have made 10 trades. Half of them involved second-round picks. And four of those five second-round deals involved the team moving back to acquire an extra pick.

Bengals’ Go-To Move Is Trading Back in Round 2

The lone exception was in 2022 when Duke Tobin sent a sixth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills in order to move up three spots to draft cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt.

If we go all the way back to the team’s first draft-day swap involving pick(s) for pick(s) in 1989, the Bengals have made 18 trades — 10 of them involved the franchise moving back, while eight had the team moving up.

The math may not be heavily out of balance, but the outcome of the decisions is.

How'd we forget this @CamTaylorBritt_ moment?

📺: https://t.co/KpeqK4RKUm pic.twitter.com/kszgPf2JYd

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) April 2, 2024

Aside from Taylor-Britt, who has emerged as the team’s top cornerback two seasons into his career, the list of players Cincinnati has moved up to obtain is less than inspiring, although the grade on the Tycen Anderson trade-up in that same 2022 draft is incomplete:

• 1992: Ki-Jana Carter, running back (from No. 5 to No. 1)
• 2002: Matt Schobel, tight end (from No. 73 to No. 67)
• 2014: Russell Bodine, center (from No. 123 to No. 111)
• 2017: Brandon Wilson, safety/returner (from No. 217 to No. 207)
• 2019: Ryan Finley, quarterback (from No. 110 to No. 104)
• 2019: Michael Jordan, center/guard (from No. 149 to No. 136)
• 2022: Cam Taylor-Britt, cornerback (from No. 63 to No. 60)
• 2022: Tycen Anderson, safety (from No. 174 to No. 166)

Trading back has been a much more effective tool for the Bengals, at least on the surface.

They still landed safety Jordan Battle last year despite trading back three spots in the third round.

They drafted tight end Drew Sample despite going back 10 spots in the second round in 2019. (Your eye rolls are audible, but Sample has given the Bengals what they wanted, and he’s under contract through 2026.)

But there is no debate about the success of the two prior to that. In 2018, the Bengals moved back eight spots in the second round and still landed safety Jessie Bates III.

And in 2017, they went back six spots and drafted running back Joe Mixon.

Fans are lined up at the Holy Grail to meet Joe Mixon. #Bengals50 pic.twitter.com/SWBnxA7yYF

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 26, 2017

The outlier in this group came in 2021 when Cincinnati moved back eight spots in the second round and drafted offensive lineman Jackson Carman.

But landing a quality player after moving back is only half of the equation. The other side of it is what the team does with the extra capital acquired. And on that front, the Bengals have whiffed.

Exacerbating the failure of the Carman deal is that the two extra picks acquired ended up being defensive tackle Tyler Shelvin (fourth round) and offensive tackle D’Ante Smith (fourth round).

Shelvin appeared in five games with four tackles. Smith has played three games.

In the Sample trade, the compensation was a fourth-round pick (defensive tackle Renell Wren) and a sixth (running back Trayveon Williams).

The deal for Bates involved a third-round pick swap with the Kansas City Chiefs, moving the Bengals from No. 100 to 78. And that ended up being linebacker Malik Jefferson, who played 11 defensive snaps in his one season in Cincinnati.

The trade back for Mixon garnered a fourth-round pick, which ended up being wide receiver Josh Malone, who caught seven passes in his two seasons with the Bengals.

MORE: Are the Cincinnati Bengals More Likely To Trade Up or Trade Back in the Draft?

As bad as that track record is, it doesn’t mean the Bengals are going to turn down offers that make sense. Tobin and the personnel department love the idea of adding picks, and given the middle-round depth — and late-round lack of it — it makes sense for the team to take another swing or two.

And based on history, and the value that can be gained, moving back from No. 49 in the second round to land an extra third- or fourth-round pick could be the move.

Let’s take a look at trades involving picks Nos. 45-55 — and only picks, not current players — in the last five drafts to get an idea of the compensation.

• 2023: The Green Bay Packers moved from 45 to 48 and acquired a fifth-round pick (159).
• 2023: The Packers moved from 48 to 50 and acquired a sixth-round pick (179).
• 2022: The Chiefs moved from 50 to 54 and acquired a fifth-round pick (158).
• 2021: The Carolina Panthers moved from 52 to 59 and acquired a fourth-round pick (113).
• 2019: The Los Angeles Rams moved from 45 to 56 and acquired a third-round pick (101).
• 2019: The Indianapolis Colts moved from 46 to 49 and acquired a fifth-round pick (144).

The question becomes how far the Bengals would be willing to go back. It would take a double-digit drop to get an extra third-round pick and probably no less than seven to get a fourth.

Another variable would be to throw in a second pick to help improve compensation. Cincinnati has two picks in the sixth round (194, 214) and two early in the seventh (224, 237).

Of course, the biggest wildcard in all of this involves a player, not a pick.

Would the Bengals be willing to honor wide receiver Tee Higgins’ trade request to package him in a deal?

KEEP READING: Cincinnati Bengals Draft Options

That’s probably not happening.

But given that the Bengals have made at least one trade in each of the last six drafts and a total of 10, you can expect some sort of movement from the team again this year.

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