The Bengals aren’t beating the allegations.
Cincinnati could only offer an apology to the Eagles after admitting it backed out of a trade after miscalculating the comp-formula price the transaction would have on its future draft picks.
Rumors emerged that the Bengals only did so after seeing a tweet stating it would lose a third-round compensatory pick by acquiring edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie for a sixth-round pick, and Cincinnati did little to dispel that narrative with its public messaging Wednesday.
To make matters worse, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin didn’t even address the issue but instead left coach Zac Taylor to deliver the mea culpa.
“Duke was very explicit with me when he came and spoke with me about how he wanted this portrayed and I’m not comfortable doing it, but I’m going to do what he asked,” Taylor said after the Bengals sat out the NFL trade deadline. “As we got into it, obviously it was going to be a little more costly than we initially anticipated. (Tobin is) really apologetic about it and wants to make clear Philly was a great trade partner, it was on our end. That’s the way things go.”
With Cincinnati tied with the Steelers atop the AFC North with a 6-2 mark, the Bengals attempted to improve on the margins by acquiring Ebiketie for a late pick.
Ebiketie is sackless across nine games this year and has 25 combined tackles.
The teams agreed to the deal, but things got weird after compensatory picks expert Nick Korte tweeted that this transaction would be quite costly for the Bengals.
By adding Ebiketie, whom the Eagles signed as a compensatory free agent, Cincinnati would ultimately forfeit the 2027 third-round comp pick headed its way for losing Trey Hendrickson.
Thus, the price to add Ebiketie suddenly jumped significantly.
Plenty of well-established media folks referenced Korte’s tweet when the Bengals backed out of the deal, which left the Eagles steaming, according to NFL Network.
Taylor did not explicitly admit that the Bengals got cold feet after seeing Korte’s tweet, but him acknowledging that they miscalculated the cost shows some level of incompetence.
The Bengals ultimately did not add any players despite other AFC contenders like the Jaguars and Bills making notable moves.
“Certainly have a ton of confidence in our front office and how they do things. They have given us the players that have allowed us to be 6-2 right now and playing at such a high level,” Taylor said. “We’ll put that behind us and move forward and just get excited for this game on Sunday, and our locker room is in a great place right now.”
He added: “I got a lot of faith in how those guys operate, and we’ll just move forward with it.”
While the Bengals surely would have liked the added depth, failing to acquire a player with zero sacks is not a setback that should affect their season in any notable way.
Cincinnati is on its way to making the playoffs for the first time since the 2022 season and Sunday’s game will play a great role in where the Bengals finish in the AFC standings.
Pittsburgh already bested Cincinnati at home and would gain the tiebreaker with a win on “Sunday Night Football” and the victor will stay in the mix for the No. 1 seed.
“I really like where we are at. I think Duke really likes where we’re at. I think you talk to players in the locker room, they really like where we are at,” Taylor said. “This is a team with a lot of confidence right now. I know it’s a fun period of time, the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, for fans, and able to generate a lot of media attention off of it, but we do really like where we are at. Our guys are playing with a high degree of confidence, and we’ll just continue to move forward. Got a huge one this week and we are not going to have any distraction around that.”
