Bengals land Vernon Hargreaves and activate Hakeem Adeniji

The Cincinnati Bengals have made another notable addition via the waiver wire.

This time, Cincinnati claimed cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III off of waivers from the Houston Texans, the team announced Thursday.

In addition, Cincinnati also announced that offensive tackle Hakeem Adeniji was returning to the active roster.

To make room, the team waived defensive end Darius Hodge and cornerback Nick McCloud.

Hargreaves, a sixth-year player by way of the University of Florida Gators, was originally a first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2016. He has played in 65 career games (57 starts) with Tampa Bay and Houston, recording 273 tackles, four interceptions, 31 pass deflections, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

It’s no secret that Hargreaves has never lived up to his billing as the 11th overall pick in 2016. He currently has a 54.3 Pro Football Focus grade and has never had a higher overall rating than 62.3.

Adeniji, a second-year player, had been on Reserve/Non-Football Injury since Aug. 31 due to a pectoral injury. He was slated to be the Bengals’ first offensive lineman off the bench and potentially take over for Riley Reiff at right tackle if the latter is not re-signed this coming offseason.

Hodge, a rookie out of Marshall University, was a college free agent signee of the Bengals in May and had played in four games this season (no statistics), despite a strong preseason showing.

McCloud, a rookie out of the University of Notre Dame, originally was a college free agent signee of the Buffalo Bills in May, and joined the Bengals on waivers on Sept. 1. He had played in one game this season for Cincinnati (no statistics).