The question is simple: Do you believe enough to sacrifice draft picks?
Everything you’re about to read is purely hypothetical, because you and I both know the Bengals are unlikely to make any moves at the NFL Trade Deadline.
But let’s pretend for a moment that the Bengals front office wakes up tomorrow morning with the sudden itch to either get rid of draft picks in hopes of going for it all this season or stockpile them in hopes of reloading for next year.
The Bills obviously believe Amari Cooper can help them win a Super Bowl. The Jets think Davante Adams is the answer to their problem.
The Browns and the Raiders, on the other hand, know their wide receivers aren’t going to get them to the playoffs this year. Nothing will. The Browns are 1-5, and the Raiders are 2-4, and neither have the roster to compete for a postseason spot.
The Cincinnati Bengals are 2-4 as well, but the difference between their situations is the fact they DO have the roster to win a Super Bowl. They were on the shortlist of contenders before the season started. Now, not so much.
But the door isn’t closed. It’s still early, and the Bengals could still mathematically win the division. In fact, the only thing likely not open to them is the No. 1 seed, but that is still mathematically possible if things fall a certain way.
If the Bengals were 4-2 instead, we’d be calling the front office to go out and get Maxx Crosby or another defensive tackle, or another cornerback. If they were 0-6, or maybe even had they lost to the Giants, we would be telling them to trade Tee Higgins or Trey Hendrickson.
We’re quiet because I think we know things could go either way. We know the Bengals could play in the playoffs. We also know they could be looking at another top-20 draft pick, so many fans, and possibly even the front office, are paralyzed by the indecisiveness that comes with not being able to see the future clearly.
On one hand, if the Bengals were to go grab someone like Maxx Crosby, or any number of the talented defenders that could be coaxed away from their teams, it could propel them to a place we thought was impossible after the first couple weeks of the season.
But what if it doesn’t? What if they trade away draft capital for something that just doesn’t work out? They do, after all, have a 2-4 record, and the deck is stacked against them. The Bengals will need to go on a couple of big win streaks to get to the postseason this year, and the odds of it happening are about 35 percent.
Is 35 percent enough for to move the needle? For them, no (duh), but if it were you, and you were calling the shots. Do you pull the trigger on a trade, knowing it’s less than likely to work out?
If you do nothing, there’s another whole issue. The Bengals should have traded AJ Green on the last year of his deal. It was clear they weren’t going anywhere, and they could have gotten something for him. Instead, ownership said something along the lines of, “We’re not in the business of making other teams better,” and Green walked, and the Bengals got nothing.
That’s what will happen with Higgins this year.
Right now, not only is a possible MVP season for Burrow being wasted, but Hendrickson and Higgins could bring in multiple picks from playoff-hungry teams, much more likely to be playing in February than the Bengals are. Wouldn’t it be a shame to let Higgins’ last season in Cincinnati lead to nothing but disappointment? Not just for the fans, but for Higgins himself.
Mike Brown may not like it, but the right answer is to do something.
If the Bengals trade picks for a player and they don’t get where they want to go, at least they tried. If they trade Higgins and find themselves in a situation where they could have made the playoffs with him (though I don’t know how you’d prove that), at least they did something.
I think the biggest mistake would be to do nothing.
So the question is this: If you were calling the shots, would you buy or would you sell?
Sound off!