Bengals Roster Breakdown: Logan Woodside returns to Cincinnati for an unexpected second chance

Throughout the summer leading up to the regular season, we will go through the entire 2024 Cincinnati Bengals roster. Every single day until the season opener against the New England Patriots, we will break down a player on the roster including his background, contract status, and path towards making the team.Today, we go over how […]

John Sheeran — Cincinnati Bengals News Writer
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Logan Woodside
© Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Throughout the summer leading up to the regular season, we will go through the entire 2024 Cincinnati Bengals roster. Every single day until the season opener against the New England Patriots, we will break down a player on the roster including his background, contract status, and path towards making the team.

Today, we go over how quarterback Logan Woodside found his way back to Cincinnati, and the chances that his return to the Bengals will be short-lived. 

Logan Woodside

  • Age: 29
  • Year: 6th
  • Position: Quarterback
  • College: Toledo
  • Previous Teams: Tennessee Titans, San Antonio Commanders, Atlanta Falcons
  • Jersey Number: 11

Woodside was drafted by the Bengals with the 249th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He spent five years at Toledo, playing four seasons and appearing in 43 games with 38 starts. Due to an injury to the starter, Woodside took over in 2014 and went 8-2 in his first year leading the offense. He redshirted in 2015 once the starter returned, but the Golden Rockets were his team again in 2016. He went 9-4 and threw for a career-best 4,129 passing yards and 45 touchdowns. His production dropped slightly in his final year in 2017, but finished 11-3 and led Toledo to its first MAC title game in 13 years. 

Not long after he became the last quarterback taken in the 2018 draft and the last Bengals QB drafted in the Marvin Lewis era, Woodside ran into trouble and was arrested for a DUI prior to his first training camp. The NFL would eventually suspend him for 10 days in October, but the Bengals had already waived him during final cuts. The Tennessee Titans signed him to their practice squad, and released right before he was suspended. 

The next several years saw Woodside in a few different places. He was drafted into the AAF by the San Antonio Commanders later on in 2018 and started eight games. Once the league became defunct in the spring of 2019, he was signed back to the Titans. He stayed on Tennessee's practice squad for all of 2019 and worked his way to becoming a backup on the active roster from 2020-21. He missed the cut in 2022 and went back down to the practice squad for most of the season before the Atlanta Falcons signed him to the active roster. He stayed with the Falcons through the 2023 season.

Six years after he was drafted, Woodside found himself a free agent with a path back to the Bengals. He signed a one-year contract the same day Jake Browning signed his two-year deal.

Contract details

Woodside signed a one-year, $1,125,000 deal with the Bengals in April that will pay him the minimum salary for a player with his level of experience for the 2024 season.

His salary will cost $1,125,000 for the entire season if he's kept on the team for the entire regular season, but since his deal qualified for the Veteran Salary Benefit, his cap hit for this season will be $985,000.

Roster chances

It's good that the Bengals have four rostered QBs entering training camp in case injury occurs to either Joe Burrow or Browning, but those two are the only ones projected to make it through final cuts.

Woodside is a veteran with some history of practicing in Cincinnati, but only injuries in front of him will net him a roster spot in September. He's likely the favorite to secure a practice squad spot over rookie Rocky Lombardi, but he could also have other options to be a backup on another club's active roster.

Woodside was originally drafted to be a long shot backup. His odds of landing that role several years later are even slimmer.

Chances of making the roster: 3%

Previous player breakdowns

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