Bengals' Dexter Lawrence trade could hint at NFL draft deals, too

One could be forgiven for thinking the Cincinnati Bengals are mostly done with trades after the blockbuster move that sent the 10th overall pick in exchange for Dexter Lawrence.

But that just might not be the case.

If the Bengals were that aggressive to go find win-now fixes for Joe Burrow, what’s stopping them from doing something else during the NFL draft?

The idea might just have legs. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated cautions that the Lawrence trade might just be a hint that the Bengals could be “aggressive moving around the board this weekend.”

Breer followed up:

“Cincinnati’s generally been one of the most conservative teams in football with draft trades—and it’s actually now been three years since they last did a deal to move up or down at any point in the draft (they made just two trades involving picks over that period, and both were for veteran players, shipping off Joe Mixon and bringing in Khalil Herbert in 2024). The Bengals have seven picks heading in. We’ll see what happens.”

An onlooker’s mind might immediately jump to wondering if the Bengals could trade back up into the first round of the draft on Thursday night. That would be extremely costly, but at this point, we can’t put anything past the Bengals.

More likely, though, is the Bengals get aggressively moving around the board on the second and third days of the draft. Perhaps they could be one of those teams that, overnight and in the hours before Round 2 starts on Friday, trade up to grab a prospect who fell out of the first round.

There are lots of little scenarios that could cause the Bengals to make trades during the draft itself. Don’t sleep on trading down while acquiring more picks to compensate for the loss of that first-rounder, either.

Given how unpredictable the Bengals suddenly are, though, their current lack of a first-round pick doesn’t mean fans should skip the opening round on Thursday…just in case.