Should the Denver Broncos trade center Lloyd Cushenberry?

After the 2022 free agency period, the Denver Broncos appear to have a surplus along their offensive line. Should they trade Lloyd Cushenberry?

As we approach the 2022 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos appear to have their roster mostly set.  Needs can be found along the edge, right tackle, and perhaps the front seven.

One position that doesn’t appear to be talked about enough is the center position.

Lloyd Cushenberry came into the NFL during the 2020 draft, as a third-round pick to the Denver Broncos. Unfortunately, he was abysmal during his rookie season and was by all metrics, the worst center in the NFL, by a wide margin.

In 2021, Cushenberry was much improved but was still no more than a below-average starter.

His PFF grade improved quite a bit, which may mean nothing to some, but he committed more penalties.

I think, at least in my opinion, he’s the weakest link on the offensive line but did improve from year one to year two.

During this past offseason, the Denver Broncos made some moves along their offensive line, re-signing Calvin Anderson, and signing both Tom Compton and Billy Turner. All three figure to be competing for the starting right tackle position, and both Compton and Turner can play on the inside.

The Broncos also restructured Graham Glasgow’s contract, so he figures to be in the mix as well.

The interesting thing about Graham Glasgow is that he has played center before, most recently in 2018 with the Detroit Lions.

Glasgow has a ton of experience playing in the interior and is one of the most veteran players on that offense.

Could there be a wild scenario where the Denver Broncos trade Cushenberry before the draft, or even during?

Because to me, there is a perfect team to acquire his services, and that team is the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals overhauled their offensive line this offseason, signing Alex Cappa, Ted Karras, and La’el Collins.

Cappa is a guard, Collins is a right tackle, and Karras can play both guard and center. The Bengals also figure to start Jonah Williams at left tackle as well.

Could the Bengals be interested in Cushenberry, since he was once teammates with Joe Burrow at LSU when they won the national championship?

The Denver Broncos could potentially acquire another late-mid-round draft pick in a very deep draft.

Denver has nine picks in the upcoming draft, and George Paton has said that he prefers to have 10 picks to work with.

Well, trading Cushenberry for one draft pick would give the Denver Broncos and George Paton their 10 draft picks.

The Bengals have eight draft picks of their own and could prefer to acquire immediate impact players rather than taking their chances on a rookie draft pick.

I’m looking at their fourth-round pick, pick 136 as the pick that I would personally be interested in for Lloyd Cushenberry.

Doing this would give the Denver Broncos three fourth-round draft picks, at 115, 116, and 136.  Not only would this give them 10 draft picks, but would give George Paton a bit more ammo if he wanted to perhaps move up the draft boards since they don’t pick until the 64th overall selection.

Trading Cushenberry would essentially anoint Graham Glasgow as the starting center and would give more clarity on the starting offensive line for Russell Wilson.