It's Cincinnati so probably a 1st rounder. Seriously though, I think they want a 2nd or 3rd round pick for him which is ridiculous.
I wonder what goes into this. He seems to have no value to them, unless they think he will help develop a rookie quarterback for the next 8 weeks. He's a UFA.
The only reasons I can see not to trade him for whatever you can get is (1) you don't want to set a precedent that you'll give guys away at the trade deadline when you suck, and (2) you want him after next year and you want to keep him through the league year to have exclusive bargaining.
Number 1 would be the sign of a terrible franchise. Every situation is different, and standing on principle or because you don't think you have the ability to say "that was different' in future negotiations is dumb. Number 2 is perhaps a realistic thing to worry about if you really like the player, but to the point where you turn down a draft pick for it? You can still get him free agency with our without exclusive bargaining.
Obviously, you don't just give away a player if there are two or more teams interested and you can use that. But, otherwise, I just don't get what the play would be here.
Then again, until yesterday Ken Wizenhut still had a job, so there's a lot of fucking dumb in the NFL.