CINCINNATI — The Bengals never did pull the trigger on a trade to improve their defense.
On the surface, that should shock no one as the Bengals just don’t part with draft capital. Anyone who expected the Bengals to be aggressive and bring in talent to a defense that is mostly healthy would be grossly disappointed – coaches, players and fans.
Still this year, there was some hope and speculation that the Bengals would be in the market for an edge rusher, corner or defensive tackle.
The Bengals passed on all three areas and decided that their group was good as is. This despite the Steelers adding edge Preston Smith from the Packers, the Ravens adding corner Tre’Davious White from the Rams and the Commanders adding corner Marshon Lattimore.
You can argue the merit of dealing a draft pick away for a player who may not have a lot left in the tank. But there is the intangible value of sending a message to the locker room that you’re adding a veteran piece with the expressed purpose of reloading for the stretch, getting to the playoffs and then making a run.
The Steelers, Ravens, Commanders and Lions all made moves to improve their playoffs chances while sending a message to their players.
Maybe the front office doesn’t believe this is the team to take that chance on. Maybe the asking price for names like Azeez Olujari, Za’Darius Smith or Chase Young was too much. Or maybe it’s all of the above.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin didn’t address the media after Tuesday’s trade deadline. He really didn’t need to. The Bengals are what they are on defense and the organization just wasn’t prepared to meet the asking price for depth at the defensive tackle, edge or cornerback positions.
Maybe trading for a backup running back for a seventh round pick was all the front office could stomach – or permitted by ownership, which regards draft picks as the highest commodity in the NFL marketplace.
Khalil Herbert, a sixth-round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2021 to the Bears, will give the Bengals depth at a position that is becoming more and more featured in the offense.
In four seasons with the Bears, Herbert has played in 48 career games for Chicago (12 starts), and has 372 rushing attempts for 1791 yards (4.8-yard average) and nine TDs.
He also has caught 45 passes for 291 yards (6.5) and two TDs, and returned 33 kickoffs for 824 yards (25.0).
“I think he’ll help us in a lot of different ways,” head coach Zac Taylor said before Tuesday night’s practice inside Paycor. “He’s played a lot of football in his time in Chicago. We had good reports on him coming out of college, evaluated his play over the last couple days.”
Herbert attended practice Tuesday night and was immediately put into pass routes and punt protection schemes.
“I just know he’s had good production in the run game. He’s an able and willing protector, good production out of the backfield over his time there in Chicago, smart guy, great reports on him. People say a lot of positive things about him. So excited to get him in there.”
One player that Taylor said the Bengals had no interest in dealing at the trade deadline was Tee Higgins, who could miss his third straight game Thursday night against the Ravens. Higgins, of course, is playing on a $21.8 million franchise tender this season but has already missed four of Cincinnati’s nine games this season with hamstring and quadriceps injuries.
“I think those are conversations you will have, but not us,” Taylor said of trade talks. “Tee’s a huge part of what we do here, a big part of helping us win and every time he’s on the field he helps us win and I like him in the locker room. We enjoy having Tee around and want to keep it that way.”
Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is a huge Yankees fan. He admittedly was dealing with some emotional grief that his team melted down on the biggest stage in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, ultimately blowing a 5-0 lead and falling 7-6 to the Dodgers. But his therapy was to use that fifth inning horror show as a lesson to his players on defense last Thursday, a day after the Series ended.
“I showed them the errors. Hopefully they did (get the message),” Anarumo said. “I showed them whatever inning that was, I showed them, and I said, ‘Hey, pitchers and catchers report first in spring training, and the first thing they do is, when the ball sit to the left side of the infield, they cover first base.’ I said, ‘We arrive at OTAs, and the first thing we do is teach communication, tackling and things like that.’
“I said, we talk about last week in every game, but hey, it’s going to come down to that. I said, ‘How many pop flies do you think Aaron Judge has caught in his career?’ and he took his eye off for one second. I said, so when, if you’re a key reading something (on the offense), and you look elsewhere, you’re going to drop the ball, figuratively and literally. And then the third one, I said, how many times you think Anthony Volpe at shortstop has picked up a ground ball and thrown it to third base and got the guy out, I said probably two million times in his life. Fundamentals at any level of any sport is with the ultimate thing that can sway you from winning and losing. So I just wanted to say, ‘Hey, here’s another sport. Here’s the World Series, and these guys lost it because of fundamentals. So that was my message.”
