{"id":872034,"date":"2026-04-22T16:57:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872034\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:57:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:57:29","slug":"report-bengals-were-eyeing-big-trade-for-other-star-ahead-of-dexter-lawrence-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872034\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Bengals Were Eyeing Big Trade for Other Star Ahead of Dexter Lawrence Acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dexter Lawrence wasn\u2019t the first elite pass rusher the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> tried acquire in a trade this month, according to a report from essentiallysports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a story published on the website this morning, Tony Pauline reported the Bengals were close to making a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders to acquire edge rusher Maxx Crosby.<\/p>\n

But the Raiders never backed off their demand for two first-round picks, which is what they thought they were getting from Baltimore before the Ravens backed out of the deal when Crosby still in their facility after taking his\u00a0 physical.<\/p>\n

The Bengals were not willing to deal two first-round picks.<\/p>\n

Trading away one was stunningly out-of-character enough.<\/p>\n

And the draft compensation would have only been part of the equation.<\/p>\n

Crosby, who is 28 and just a few months older than Lawrence, still has four years left on his contract after signing a three-year extension worth $106.5 million in March 2025.<\/p>\n

Crosby is due a base salary of $30 million in 2026, $29 million in 2027, $26.5 million in 2028 and $27.4 million in 2029, although there is a potential out after the 2027 season which would not result in any dead cap charges if the team were to cut him.<\/p>\n

Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said at the Combine that \u201cpass rush is king,\u201d and this report just further drives home that point.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati signed edge rusher Boye Mafe and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen before trading for Lawrence and attempting to trade for Crosby.<\/p>\n

Mafe and Lawrence are each making at least $20 million per year, and Allen signed a two-year, $25 million contract.<\/p>\n

The Bengals went after pass rushers in a big way this offseason.<\/p>\n

And per the report, they tried to make an even bigger splash with Crosby, who has recorded double-digit sacks in three of the last four seasons.<\/p>\n

The exception was 2024 when he only had 7.5 after missing five games due to injury.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s expected to recover from the knee issue that led to him unsurprisingly failing his physical with Baltimore given how early he is in his rehab, there still are going to be questions about the knee\u2019s long-term viability.<\/p>\n

Lawrence is the better fit for the Bengals given his smaller contract and better bill of health, not to mention the stark difference in the number of quality edge rushers and top interior players in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

Plus, dropping Lawrence in the middle of the defense is going to have a ripple effect on the rest of the entire team.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign Up For Our DAILY Newsletter for More Free Coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals Delivered to You Directly<\/a><\/p>\n

For more on the Bengals,\u00a0subscribe to our YouTube Channel and be sure to check us out on your favorite audio platforms, including\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0iHeartRadio<\/a>, and\u00a0Amazon<\/a>. Make sure you\u00a0bookmark BengalsTalk.com\u00a0for the latest Bengals news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more! We’re a one-stop shop for all things Cincinnati Bengals! Join the\u00a063,000+ Bengals fans who subscribe to us on YouTube.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dexter Lawrence wasn\u2019t the first elite pass rusher the Cincinnati Bengals tried acquire in a trade this month,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-872034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116449421100871499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}