The Cincinnati Bengals' fanbase went through a whirlwind of emotions on Tuesday morning leading up to the NFL trade deadline. First, it was reported that the team had traded for Philadelphia Eagles defender Arnold Ebikietie.
However, it was later revealed that the Bengals would be backing out of the trade after they realized that the third-round compensatory pick that they received as a result of Trey Hendrickson's departure last offseason would be lost due to the deal.
Now, more information has been revealed about the man at the center of both this lost transaction and another situation in which the Bengals were able to hold onto a comp pick.
“Back in March of 2024, (Nick Korte) noticed that the Bengals appeared to be shorted a 3rd round compensatory pick following the departure of Jessie Bates in free agency. Days later, the NFL announced it had made an error and Cincinnati wound up with a 3rd round compensatory pick,” reported Field Yates of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
“Today: Nick’s tweet was the first to acknowledge that a trade for Arnold Ebiketie would cancel out the Bengals’ upcoming 3rd round compensatory pick for Trey Hendrickson,” he added, referring to Korte as the “Comp Pick GOAT.”
Indeed, Korte has been doing a lot of heavy lifting for the Bengals front office's incompetence over the last couple of years, and it wouldn't be a shock to see him stop tweeting these things publicly and instead ask to be compensated appropriately for his services.
In any case, the Bengals still have a few hours to make a move before Tuesday's deadline, which is set for 4:00 pm ET.