The Cincinnati Bengals have all day Friday and nine draft picks to work with when considering a trade up the order in the second round to start Day 2 of the 2024 NFL draft.
And given the staggering amount of top prospects remaining on the board, Duke Tobin and Co. should be working the phones all day.
There’s simply little reason to sit still at No. 49 and let 16 more prospects come off the board. Not when the team has nine more draft selections and only so many roster spots to go around this summer, anyway.
Grabbing 18th overall pick Amarius Mims was a great way to start, no doubt. But trading up and adding say, defensive lineman Johnny Newton? A guy commonly mocked to the Bengals in the first round?
That’s the type of move a team desperate to widen the contention window would make to secure first-round talents in both trenches.
It’s not like it would cost all that much, either. Here’s a quick look at the trade value chart:
The chart is from before the draft started, of course, yet the values remain the same. If the Bengals wanted to trade up with Buffalo for pick No. 33 (180 points) and give up No. 49 (118) in the process, they would need to make up roughly 60 points. That’s as simple as coughing up one of the two third-rounders and a lesser pick or some combination of lesser picks and next year’s picks.
If one really, really wants to get weird, consider Buffalo’s major need for a wideout:
Text from a non-Bills scout:
“Trading back to 33 (for Buffalo) is super smart. Now they have all day tomorrow to try and trade for Tee Higgins or one of the 49ers wideouts”
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) April 26, 2024
The Bengals aren’t trading Tee Higgins, but it’s a good example of where things stand as teams work the phones all day. Maybe the trade partner is New England at No. 34 or Arizona at No. 35.
Either way, now doesn’t feel like the time for the Bengals to sit back and be happy the board is falling so nicely when they clutch so much ammunition.
The Bengals have evolved much over the last few years and are open to draft trades more than usual during the Zac Taylor era. Now would be the time to get aggressive in the AFC arms race.
