This year, the NFL trade deadline is November 5. Until then, the Cincinnati Bengals can make trades with other teams if they want. One player they should trade, according to Bleacher Report, is offensive lineman Jackson Carman, who has been with the team for four years.
Carman hasn’t made it into Cincinnati’s rotation in his first three seasons and isn’t expected to play a major role in 2024. So the paper suggested the Bengals try to recoup some money for Carman while he might still be of interest to other teams. From Bleacher Report:
“Given his limited playing time (12 in 2023), Cincinnati would be wise to open phone lines to any teams needing more depth on offense. Waiting and releasing the 24-year-old would be the worst-case scenario. … Although the 2024 season marks Carman’s fourth year in the NFL, he remains a developmental player whose potential could intrigue teams.”
Carman is only 24 years old, so he still has a lot of football ahead of him. Maybe a fresh start would do him good, because things just didn’t work out in Cincinnati, even though the team signed him with a second-round pick in 2021.
The Clemson product struggled in Cincinnati’s 17-14 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their preseason opener. He was constantly fouled off the line and committed a ton of penalties – three holding penalties and one offside penalty, to be exact. It wasn’t a promising performance, to say the least.
Carman’s current contract only has one year left, and he’s an unrestricted free agent in 2025. Since it seems unlikely that the Bengals will try to bring him back, the suggestion that they should try to get something back from him rather than lose him as a free agent for nothing makes sense.
One might wonder what exactly the Bengals could get for the underperforming player, but hey, technically anything would be better than nothing.
