Bengals and Bills go National in preseason

The Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills will be facing off in week three of the preseason after exchanging multiple players between the clubs.

The offseason for the Cincinnati Bengals has been an uncharacteristically aggressive one compared to the last 15 years under head coach Marvin Lewis. The story between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills continues as they face off in Buffalo in week three of the preseason. They have been connected ever since the Bengals knocked the Baltimore Ravens out of the playoffs in week 17 giving the Bills their first playoff appearance in 17 years.

The relationship continued as the teams worked out a trade sending left tackle Cordy Glenn to the Bengals by swapping first round picks and the Bills sending over a fifth-round pick for a sixth-round pick. A few days after free agency period opened, the Bengals signed former Bills inside linebacker Preston Brown, the NFL’s leading tackler this past season, with their annual one-year inside linebacker deal.

The Bills kept it going by signing former backup quarterback A.J. McCarron to a two year deal after shipping out starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor to the Cleveland Browns. He will likely be a bridge quarterback as the Bills look to keep moving up in the draft to select their future quarterback. Buffalo holds two first-round picks, the other coming from the Kansas City Chiefs trading with the Bills in last year’s draft to select quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

To finish off the movement, the Bills signed former Bengals center Russell Bodine to replace their center Eric Wood who retired this offseason. Wood suffered a neck injury that was the big reason for retiring early. Now the two teams will faceoff in the preseason to continue the long relationship between week 17 of last season and now. McCarron will face off against his former defense for the first time in a different uniform as he takes his first real opportunity to compete for the starting job.