The Cincinnati Bengals didn’t just publicly expose their process as flawed at the NFL trade deadline via the failed trade.
They also didn’t improve the roster.
That point is sort of getting lost in the chaos.
While the Bengals were busy backing out of a trade they agreed to while learning about rules from perennially online social media users, the rest of the stacked AFC was…improving their rosters.
Here’s a quick rundown:
- The Buffalo Bills trade for Amani Hooker
- The Denver Broncos traded for Daiyan Henley
- The Jacksonville Jaguars traded for Jordan Davis, Davon Godchaux and Jessie Bates
- The Kansas City Chiefs traded for Josh Downs
For those keeping count, that’s four of the AFC’s top six current playoff seeds making moves for starting-caliber players. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers joined the Bengals in making zero moves.
Written another way, only the AFC North squads well-known to be old-school and stingy with contract squabbles and stuff hanging around them
didn’t make a move.
Sure, we can wax poetic all day about how the Bengals were merely trying to beef up the fourth or fifth spot in the defensive end rotation. But the how matters. The small front office didn’t know draft compensatory pick trade rules. Social media did. Backing out of a deal is one thing. Flaming out so publicly and reinforcing stereotypes is another.
This is the sort of thing that could show up huge in the playoffs. The Bengals invested a presumably big amount of time in seeking out this trade and upgrade. They did nothing else. Other teams found trades and possible upgrades and got them done.
The Bengals have other means to upgrade depth spots, including free agency and the waiver wire. But their focus was on depth while a chunk of the playoff-bound teams in the AFC found starter-level help. These are the micro things that tend to separate organizations off the field before the results on the field, and it’ll be up to Joe Burrow to once again overcome it.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals one of only AFC playoff contenders to stand still at deadline
