Bengals pull plug on Arnold Ebiketie trade to protect valuable 2027 draft pick

The Cincinnati Bengals just backed away from their trade for Arnold Ebiketie. 

At first, they were ready to send the Eagles a sixth-round pick for the edge-rusher, but then the front office realized making this move could cost them a much more valuable draft selection down the road — a third-round compensatory pick in 2027, according to NFL insider Ian Rapoport.

Picking up Ebiketie could erase the third-round comp pick the Bengals are in line to get after allowing Trey Hendrickson to leave in free agency. Suddenly, a simple sixth-rounder wasn’t the whole price tag. There was too much on the line, so Cincinnati nixed the deal. It wasn’t about Ebiketie flunking a physical or anything like that — just draft math.

The whole thing boils down to how the NFL’s compensatory-pick formula works. Ebiketie, labeled as a compensatory free agent after signing a one-year deal with the Eagles in March, could have thrown off Cincinnati’s comp-pick calculations if they picked him up.

They’ve already lost three qualifying free agents this offseason and signed two, so Hendrickson leaving put them in a good spot for that third-rounder in 2027. Adding Ebiketie would have messed that up, and that pick is a lot more valuable than the sixth-rounder on the table.