In a funny twist, the Cincinnati Bengals might’ve been able to go through with the Arnold Ebiketie trade after all.
This week, former Bengals guard Cordell Volson signed with the Seattle Seahawks practice squad.
This matters to the botched trade because Volson’s status as a Bengals free agent was one of the factors that played into the NFL compensatory draft pick formula that ultimately had the Bengals backing out of the trade.
Very long story short, the fact Volson hadn’t signed with a team and logged starter’s snaps played into the formula. The Bengals “lost” three players last year (Trey Hendrickson, Joseph Ossai and Noah Fant) and signed two (Bryan Cook, Boye Mafe), so that Ebiketie deal would have likely cost them the third-round comp pick
for losing Hendrickson (who is worth a third because of the contract he signed in Baltimore).
If Volson had, or does still land with a team and play enough starter’s snaps, it might swing the formula more, letting the Bengals pull off a move like the botched trade.
Lots of “ifs” here, though. Volson originally signed with Tennessee, was cut at final cuts and had a brief stint on Green Bay’s practice squad in September before now signing with the Seahawks.
The debate is whether Volson will actually count in the comp pick process for the Bengals after signing with multiple teams.
If Cordell Volson ends up logging enough snaps for the Seahawks, this could be a good test to learn whether snap count boosts apply for compensatory free agents across multiple teams after being cut. https://t.co/pzVDUoYTjb
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) November 12, 2026
So, a fun little sidebar to the Bengals’ botched trade. If Volson starts and he ends up counting, it’ll be insult atop injury, when it was already bad enough the front office sent out Zac Taylor to fall on the sword over publicly.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Former Bengals starter signs with SEA, draft pick debate starts again
