Bengals land Cordy Glenn in trade with Bills

The Cincinnati Bengals have found their next left tackle.

According to ESPN reporter Josina Anderson, the Bengals are trading for Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Cordy Glenn. According to NFL Network reporter Peter Schrager, the Bengals will swap first-round picks with Buffalo, moving from No. 12 to the No. 21 pick in Round 1. The Bengals will get the Bills’ fifth-round pick, and the Bills get the Bengals’ sixth-round pick.

This is huge news for a Bengals team that desperately needed offensive line help, especially at offensive tackle. Glenn will almost certainly take over the left tackle spot and replace Cedric Ogbuehi, who clearly isn’t an NFL tackle.

Since being a second-round pick out of Georgia in the 2012 NFL Draft, Glenn has been a full-time starter at left tackle for Buffalo. That includes 77 starts but he missed 10 games due to injury in 2017. He’s actually missed 15 games due to injury over the last two seasons, which is part of why Buffalo wanted to shed his contract.

Glenn was injured throughout the 2017 season, which led to him having his worst season when he was healthy. Pro Football Focus gave him a meager 68.1 grade, but that came after four-straight seasons of 82.3 or better.

There was some thought the Bengals could spend a high draft pick on an offensive tackle this year, but with the acquisition of Glenn, they can now be more flexible with the No. 21 overall pick.

Glenn has spent the majority of his career at left tackle in Buffalo. He’s had some good seasons along with some so-so ones, but even his worst years have been significantly better than what the Bengals have had since Andrew Whitworth left in the 2017 offseason.

In terms of salary, Glenn is set to have a $9.25 million base salary, $2 million roster bonus and in total a $11.25 million cap hit in 2018, according to Spotrac. His 2019 cap hit would be $9.25 million and in 2020 $9.5 million. But, there’s an out in his contract in 2019 where the Bengals could part ways with him and save $41.25 million while owing $0 in dead cap money. That offers a great opportunity for the Bengals if Glenn doesn’t work out or proves not to be worth the money.

When healthy, Glenn has proved worthy of the money, so hopefully he stays healthy and plays his heart out in Cincinnati. It’ll be nice for him to reunite with his former Georgia Bulldogs teammate Clint Boling who he’ll be playing right next to. At Georgia, Boling played left tackle and Glenn played left guard. In Cincinnati, they’ll be swapping roles but still playing alongside each other.