Cincinnati Bengals give up on former first-round pick Billy Price

The Cincinnati Bengals have given up on former first-round pick Billy Price, trading him to the New York Giants for defensive lineman BJ Hill.

As teams around the league make moves to get their rosters down to the league-mandated maximum of 53 players, there is always intrigue as trades are more common at this time of year than almost any other. The Cincinnati Bengals jumped into that trade market to acquire some defensive line depth, getting defensive lineman BJ Hill from the New York Giants.

In the process of acquiring Hill, a player the Giants were pretty open about wanting to deal, the Cincinnati Bengals gave up on a former big-name prospect. In fact, they gave up on 2018 first-round pick Billy Price to get Hill off the Giants’ hands.

Trade reaction for the Cincinnati Bengals

This is a bittersweet deal for Cincinnati to have to make.

On the one hand, the Bengals are getting a guy in BJ Hill who can actually contribute for them this year. Price wasn’t on pace to do that.

Hill, just like Price, is in his fourth NFL season and is playing for a new contract after the 2021 campaign. The Bengals can get the former third-round pick out of North Carolina State into the rotation with guys like DJ Reader and Larry Ogunjobi.

Hill had a really strong rookie season for the Giants with 5.5 sacks and 14 total pressures. His snap counts and usage have gone down every year since then with just two sacks and 11 pressures over the last two seasons combined.

This is a worthwhile risk for Cincinnati to take and pretty solid value for a player in Price who wasn’t going to make an impact this season.

Trade reaction for the New York Giants

The opportunity to get a former first-round pick, especially one as recent as a 2018 first-round pick, is always intriguing.

The New York Giants clearly have been having issues on the offensive line and they need all the help they can get.

Whether or not Price can live up to his first-round billing in New York remains to be seen, but again, for the price the Giants paid to get him, it’s a worthwhile risk.

If you’re the Cincinnati Bengals, you hate to see a former first-round pick go after just three seasons with the team without any substantial impact made, but that is the unfortunate nature of the NFL Draft sometimes.

The Bengals’ need for offensive line improvement is also notable in all of this. The fact that they couldn’t make things work with Price is indicative of the fact that he simply has not been able to develop, but you never know what a change of scenery will do for a player.

The Giants will obviously give Price a shot to play either guard or tackle to resurrect his career.