By October’s end, Trae Waynes will have played in just two of the Bengals’ past 24 games. The veteran cornerback is heading to IR with a hamstring injury, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.
Waynes aggravated the hamstring issue that previously forced him to miss Cincinnati’s first three games this season. The former Vikings cornerback missed all of last year.
The Bengals paid Waynes handsomely last year, signing the former first-round pick to a three-year, $42MM deal. That pact has not worked out to this point. Waynes missed the 2020 season due to a torn pectoral muscle suffered last August. He will now be down for the next three Bengals games. Waynes, 29, missed just six games over the course of his five-year Vikings tenure.
Cincinnati was busy at cornerback this year, adding outside cover man Chidobe Awuzie and slot man Mike Hilton in free agency. Neither’s deal is in Waynes’ ballpark, however, with Awuzie signing for $7.25MM per year and Hilton leaving Pittsburgh for $6MM on average. The Bengals let William Jackson walk in free agency rather than use its franchise tag to retain him.