Bengals had trade offers for 28th pick before selecting Myles Murphy

When the 2023 NFL Draft played out, it began to look like the Cincinnati Bengals were in a position to possibly trade out of their 28th overall pick.

Sitting at the end of the first round, dropping back a few picks and collecting more draft capital can be an intriguing idea if there isn’t a player on the board you’re sold on.

According to Bengals Director of College Scouting, Mike Potts, the Bengals had the opportunity to move off the pick.

“So the way the process goes is we’re actually feeling a ton of trade calls,” Potts said on Hear That Podcast Growlin’. “We probably had, I would say, upwards of five offers to move back off of that 28th pick, but if a guy like Myles, we knew if he was there, we were in all likelihood, unless we were blown away by an offer, we were gonna stick and pick a high caliber guy like that. If we felt like we were dropping down a level of player, we would have probably moved back and taken the best of those multiple offers that we had there. We got a guy that we didn’t feel like we were dropping down a level of player. It was a guy that we targeted.”

It was evident when watching the draft that the Bengals coveted Murphy. When Cincinnati came on the clock, it seemed like the pick was in before 30 seconds or so came off the clock. They had the offers, but they saw their guy, and they wasted no time selecting him.

Potts continued that if Murphy was already off the board, they likely would have traded back.

“Those were all picks and similar range, 28 to 33 range,” Potts continued. “So a similar caliber of player that we thought could have went higher than that late first to the top of the second, in Tee (Higgins) situation. We thought those guys were easily first-round players, and we were happy that they were there.

“Now, if we felt like we were dropping down a level of player, we had deals in place that we’re picking at 28 and Myles Murphy maybe goes at 27 or a couple other guys that we’d like go those picks right before us, we certainly would have pulled the trigger on that trade and move back.”

The Bengals typically build their draft board and stick to it, but we have seen more draft movement in recent years. This year, they were able to stay put and land a player they genuinely don’t seem to believe would have been there.