Hypothetical expansion NFL club drafts two Bengals starters from last year including one who will likely be off the team soon anyways
Roster alterations will be necessary for the Cincinnati Bengals in the coming weeks and months. A team with 91 players obviously has to cut down to 53 by a certain date before the regular season begins, but a handful of players could have their fates determined before then for reasons beyond NFL rules.But what if […]
Roster alterations will be necessary for the Cincinnati Bengals in the coming weeks and months. A team with 91 players obviously has to cut down to 53 by a certain date before the regular season begins, but a handful of players could have their fates determined before then for reasons beyond NFL rules.
But what if the 33rd NFL club was born right this instant and those decisions were basically made for Cincinnati? Well, that's what A to Z Sports' Wendell Ferreira did this week with his hypothetical expansion team, the St. Louis Arches. Ferreira conducted an entire expansion draft and added players from all around the league to fill out his experimental roster.
A total of three Bengals ended up being poached by Ferreira acting as general manager, including one player who's unlikely to be in Cincinnati for much longer.
Linebacker Germaine Pratt and guard Cordell Volson were each selected in the hypothetical expansion draft as they were among the 12 players left unprotected on the Bengals' roster. For a quick refresher, here were the rules of why some players were able to be protected and some weren't:
- Each current NFL team has to leave 12 players unprotected.
- Players with 0 or 1 accrued seasons are automatically protected and can't be on the list. Players with no-trade clauses can't be added either (Joe Burrow is the only Bengals player with a no-trade clause per spotrac).
- If the player is taken, the expansion team will absorb both his future salaries and signing bonus prorations, so it can be a useful tool to unload veteran contracts. You can add on the unprotected list the worst possible players and/or some bad contracts, use strategy here.
- The list is final, meaning that teams can't withdraw a player after another one has been selected.
- The expansion team can get a maximum of two players from each NFL team, and a maximum of 40 players.
These were the unprotected players based on those rules:
- RB Gary Brightwell
- OT Devin Cochran
- CB Jalen Davis
- LB Joe Giles-Harris
- TE Tanner Hudson
- WR Charlie Jones
- G Jaxson Kirkland
- LB Germaine Pratt
- DE Isaiah Thomas
- G Cordell Volson
- QB Logan Woodside
- CB Marco Wilson
Pratt and Volson were the only two players with legitimate starting experience, so it makes sense for them to be targets for a brand new team in search of 22 starters. They're also two players Cincinnati has at least pondered letting go at some point this offseason.
Volson ended up taking a pay cut to stay with the team to receive fresh coaching from new offensive line coach Scott Peters. He's not a lock to make the initial 53-man roster, but he will be cheaper to carry throughout the season.
Pratt is a different story entirely. He requested a trade all the way back in February and radio silence has followed ever since. He's not showing up to OTAs and voluntary workouts were the same story. The only logical reason why he's still rostered is the club is holding out hope a trade may materialize and they don't lose him for nothing, or they're not wanting to create even more cap space as a leverage tactic with Trey Hendrickson's contract drama.
Whatever the case may be, Pratt is simply not in the plans going forward. A pop-up St Louis franchise taking him off their hands wouldn't be the end of the world.
The third Bengal to be poached is actually a rookie. Center Seth McLaughlin, who signed as an undrafted free agent in May, was picked as one of Ferreira's UDFAs. McLaughlin is hoping to be medically cleared by July after he tore his Achilles last November.
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