Bengals can officially label the rare decision they made during the 2025 season as a success
Cincinnati trading away Logan Wilson proved to be a wise move.
Former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson has been released by the Dallas Cowboys.
Cincinnati traded Wilson to Dallas right before the 2025 NFL trade deadline and received a seventh-round 2026 NFL Draft pick in return. The former third-round pick had been benched by the Bengals a few weeks before the trade materialized.
Wilson requested his trade, but it wasn’t a given Cincinnati would oblige. The Bengals very rarely trade away their own players during the season, with the only somewhat recent example being Carlos Dunlap in 2020.
But Wilson got his wish, and with him now looking for a new team and a draft pick at their disposal, the Bengals can look back at the move as a success.
Logan Wilson’s release further validates Cincinnati’s decision to trade him away
Wilson’s 2025 season only went downhill from the start. He was named a team captain by Cincinnati for the first time in his six-year career, expecting to continue his run as the starting MIKE backer in the first year under defensive coordinator Al Golden, the coach who first developed him during his first two years in the league as his LB coach.
Six weeks later, he found himself playing a lesser role with rookie Barrett Carter taking his green communication dot off his helmet. Carter was taking over as the MIKE despite Wilson being in the second year of his four-year extension he signed back in 2023. It was a bold and frankly unexpected move, one that had obvious implications for Wilson.
Wilson was far from the first recent or current Bengal to request a trade, but unlike Trey Hendrickson, Tee Higgins, and even Jonah Williams before him, he was the only one who was truly demoted. He went from supposed locker room leader and one of the most important players on a defense that needed all the leaders it could get, to a 29-year old being indirectly told he’s not the same player he used to be.
The Cowboys seemed to learn the same. After his first six games, his new coaching staff forgot to play him for an entire game in Week 17, and now he’s unemployed.
Wilson’s value was as low as it could’ve been when he requested his trade. No one would’ve blinked if Cincinnati, notorious for holding onto its players instead of trading them for draft capital, kept Wilson on the roster despite his wishes. Trading him for a seventh-rounder was considered a sign of progress for this exact reason, despite the obvious minimal return.
Now that the dust is completely settled, it was very much the right move, and a sign that similar moves should follow in the future.
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