The Saints took a look at two veteran offensive linemen on Tuesday, bringing in Cornelius Lucas and Cody Ford for workouts as the team deals with an injury to LT Kelvin Banks.
Lucas, 35, has been around the league long enough to know how quickly roster life can change. He entered the NFL with the Lions in 2014 as an undrafted free agent out of Kansas State and stuck on Detroit’s 53-man roster in each of his first three seasons, finishing out his three-year, $1,550,000 contract there.
Detroit brought Lucas back on a restricted deal for 2017, but he ended up in the team’s final cuts. The Rams then signed him a few weeks into the regular season and later added him again on a new deal in 2018.
That run didn’t last through the preseason, though, and Lucas was cut by Los Angeles before landing in a back-and-forth stint with the Saints before eventually moving on to the Bears in 2019. Washington later signed him to a two-year deal the next offseason, then brought him back on another two-year contract in 2022.
He signed a two-year deal with Cleveland ahead of the 2025 season, only to be released before the 2026 league year began. Last season, Lucas played in 10 games for the Browns and started five.
Ford, 29, comes with a different draft pedigree. The Bills took him in the second round in 2019, and he played out the last year of his four-year, $7.5 million deal while making a base salary of $1.5 million in 2022. Buffalo later traded him to the Cardinals for a 2023 fifth-round pick, and Ford hit free agency for the first time before agreeing to a one-year contract with the Bengals.
His time in Cincinnati kept rolling after that. Ford re-signed with the Bengals on March 9th of 2024, then signed another two-year deal exactly one year later. The Bengals moved on from him during camp this year, and he appeared in 17 games for them in 2025.
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Bengals Legend Blames One Reckless Decision For Steelers Loss
The Bengals loss to the Steelers has been picked apart from plenty of angles, but T.J. Houshmandzadeh zeroed in on one third-quarter sequence he changed the feel of the game. Speaking on the Speakeasy podcast, the former Cincinnati receiver blamed the decision to try to block a punt, a gamble that instead produced a roughing the kicker penalty and handed Pittsburgh a fresh break in a tight spot.
Houshmandzadeh called the call reckless, arguing that the odds of successfully blocking a punt in the NFL are so slim that the risk rarely justifies the reward. That backdrop matters because blocked punts remain one of the leagues rarest plays, with only 59 since 2020, which only sharpens the scrutiny on a decision that left the Bengals paying for a mistake rather than cashing in on one. [Read more 🡒]
Dalton Risner Saw One Bengals Positive Even In That Final Chaos
The Bengals had one last chance to steal the game from Pittsburgh, and it ended in the kind of scramble that leaves an offensive lineman replaying every second. Joe Burrow was sacked and fumbled on Cincinnatis final offensive snap, with the Steelers coming away with the recovery to close out the game in chaos.
Even in that finish, Dalton Risner found a silver lining for Cincinnati. The right guard pointed to tight end Erick All for the way he kept fighting for the loose ball after the official recovery, a small detail in a messy ending that at least showed the Bengals were still playing hard to the final whistle. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Face A Stretch That Could Change Everything Before Madrid
The Bengals Week 3 loss to the Steelers only sharpened the focus on what comes next, because the road before the trip to Madrid looks like the kind of stretch that can define a season. Cincinnati is staring at a run of games against the Jaguars, Dolphins, Ravens and Titans, a mix that tests everything from pass rush and coverage to the ability to stay steady while injuries and coaching decisions continue to shape the week-to-week outlook.
Jacksonville and Miami bring their own challenges, while Baltimore always raises the stakes for Cincinnati in a division race that leaves little margin for error. Tennessee can be a different kind of test, but the bigger question is whether the Bengals can use this stretch to reset their footing before the spotlight shifts overseas, or whether the issues that surfaced against Pittsburgh keep following them into October. [Read more 🡒]