The fallout from the Cincinnati Bengals backing out of the NFL trade deadline deal with the Philadelphia Eagles continues.
Writing about the gaffe Saturday, Tom Pelissero of The Ringer confirmed that the Bengals agreed to the deal, then contacted the NFL with questions about the compensatory draft pick impact before calling the Eagles back and apologetically backing out of the deal.
"The Bengals' mistake was agreeing to acquire Ebiketie for a 2027 sixth-round pick before checking with the NFL Management Council about how he would be counted,” Pelissero wrote. “Once the deal was in place, the Bengals did call the league and got clarity: Because of one of many quirks in the formula, trading for Ebiketie—who signed a one-year, $4.3 million deal with the Eagles
in March—would cause him to count as a free agent gain for both the Eagles and the Bengals, even though he's on a minimum salary for the rest of the season."
We’ve gone over what went wrong in the past multiple times at this point and fans are probably tired of hearing about it.
So, if nothing else, Pelissero noted that neither team acted “nefariously” during the deal.
That’s nice for the Bengals, but it doesn't remove the sting of so embarrassingly not fully understanding the rules and agreement they were making, then needing to apologize while burning another team at the deadline.
And, to top it all off, they sent head coach Zac Taylor out there to explain it away while the real decision-makers behind the mistake remained out of the spotlight.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals take another public hit for trade deadline mishap
