The Buffalo Bills unloaded their high-priced and oft-injured left tackle and, in the process, may be in line to draft a quarterback next month.
Buffalo traded Cordy Glenn to the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday, according to ESPN’s Josina Anderson who first reported the developments. Peter Schrager later detailed that the two teams swapped first round picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. This means the Bills moved up to 12th while the Bengals now pick 21st. Cincy also received Buffalo’s fifth-round pick in exchange for the Bengals’ sixth-round selection.
I'm told the #Bengals are trading for #Bills OT Cordy Glenn.
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) March 12, 2018
Compensation for Cordy Glenn trade:
Bills and Bengals swap 1st Round picks. Bills go to 12. Bengals go to 21.
Teams also swap 5th and 6th round picks. @nflnetwork @NFL @gmfb
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) March 12, 2018
Buffalo Bills Trade Cordy Glenn, Move Up in First Round of 2018 NFL Draft
Per Spotrac, the Bills incur a $9.6 million dead money charge but also net $4.85 million in cap savings for 2018 as a result of the transaction. It gives the team slightly over $39.7 million in cap space to work with this off-season. It’s expected that $9.766 million of that sum will be allocated to their 2018 draft picks.
Glenn struggled to stay on the field in 2017, making only five starts due to a nagging ankle injury. It eventually led to the Bills placing him on season-ending injured reserve on December 15th. But even prior to last season, Glenn had issues with the ankle. He missed five games and played a career-low 657 snaps in 2016.
Before then, the Georgia product stayed relatively healthy. He started all 61 of the games he appeared in for the Bills over the course of his first four seasons in the league. Three of them saw him garner a top-20 pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. It resulted in him signing a five-year, $65 million contract with the team during the 2016 off-season.
The writing on the wall surrounding Glenn’s future in Buffalo centered around Dion Dawkins ably filling in for him. The rookie second-round pick out of Temple was expected to compete for the starting job at right tackle. But he slotted in fairly seamlessly to the left-hand side of the offensive line. It made Glenn expendable enough that Buffalo was willing to eat a fairly sizable amount of dead cap.
