While the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t land anyone on waiver claims following Tuesday’s cutdown day, we know of at least one player they tried to get.
According to NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo, the Bengals attempted to claim defensive tackle Jordan Jefferson, who ultimately went to the San Francisco 49ers.
A 2024 fourth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jefferson actually began his college career at West Virginia in 2019 while Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase were lighting up the college football world at LSU. Jefferson would eventually transfer to LSU in 2022, where he spent his final two seasons before entering the NFL.
The 6-foot-4, 317-pound lineman would appear in eight games as a rookie and logged 12 tackles, one pass deflection, one QB hit, and one tackle for loss. He earned a respectable 62.7 PFF grade across 151 defensive snaps, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Jags from waiving him during Tuesday’s cutdown day.
The Bengals ultimately kept a pair of undrafted rookie free agents at defensive tackle on their initial 53-man roster: Howard Cross and Eric Gregory. Had the Bengals landed Jefferson, one of those two likely would have been waived and potentially signed to the practice squad.