The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t known as a team that’s aggressive when it comes to making trades. In fact, when researching this article, I found it difficult to even find many trades the Bengals had made at all.
With that said, I’ve come up with six disappointing trades in Bengals history. These might not have necessarily been bad trades for Cincinnati but rather, it was disappointing for a variety of reasons. Maybe the player was one that fans didn’t want to see leave or maybe the other team got the better end of the deal even if it was a decent trade.
With that said, let’s take a look at the six most disappointing trades for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Trade for Cordy Glenn in 2018
During the 2018 offseason, the Cincinnati Bengals made the decision to trade for left tackle, Cordy Glenn, who went in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft to the Buffalo Bills. Glenn appeared in 78 games at left tackle for the Bills from 2012-2017 but had been banged up in his final season there, prompting the trade.
In exchange, the two teams swapped first-rounders, with the Bengals moving back to pick No. 21 and the Bills landing at No. 12 overall and also swapped fifth and sixth rounders.
The trade was perplexing at the time because of Glenn’s injury history and it proved to be disappointing. He played in just 19 games over two years with the team and is out of the league at the moment.
The Bills went on to trade up from pick No. 12 to pick No. 7 to acquire Josh Allen while the Bengals stood pat at No. 21 and took Billy Price. Had they remained at No. 12, they could have landed some names such as Vita Vea, Derwin James, Jaire Alexander, or Frank Ragnow. Instead, they settled on Price, who is now with the Giants after being traded over the summer.