On NFL trade deadline day, the Cincinnati Bengals did not make a single move. But they tried to make a trade and had actually agreed upon a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.

They would've landed edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie in exchange for a 2027 sixth-round pick, which wouldn't have been a bad deal. However, it was revealed that if they made the trade, they would've lost their 2027 third-round compensatory pick for losing Trey Hendrickson.

Cincinnati backed out of the trade, and one day later, ESPN's Ben Baby shared how head coach Zac Taylor apologized on behalf of Duke Tobin and the Bengals for how this trade fell apart.

Bengals apologize for trade with Eagles falling through

"We did make an effort to put some depth in there in place of Cashius [Howell]. As we got into it, obviously it was going to be a little more costly than we initially anticipated," Taylor said. "He's really apologetic about it and wants to make clear [that] Philly was a great trade partner. It was on our end."

Taylor issued the apology on behalf of Tobin, who spoke with Taylor beforehand about how this Wednesday's post-trade deadline press conference would go down.

The Cincinnati head coach admitted, "Duke was very explicit with me when he came and spoke to me about how he wanted this portrayed. I'm not comfortable doing it, but I'm going to do what he asked."

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This quote from Taylor might raise some eyebrows, and deservedly so. Tobin and the Bengals' front office failing to account for the compensatory pick formula and how the Ebiketie trade would affect it is a bad look for an NFL front office.

Cincinnati didn't lose that third-round compensatory pick, so the worst damage hadn't been done. But still, this near-disaster of a trade is something that an NFL team should never let happen.

And yet, it happened to the Bengals. Taylor's apology is likely for the Eagles for how the trade fell through, and for the Bengals' team and fanbase, for how the embarrassing trade saga unfolded.

The Bengals now need to move on, as their Week 10 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had a bit of an embarrassing moment of their own when they called Makai Lemon too early on draft night before the Eagles picked him, is a must-win game.

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