Ford was originally a second-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2019 and spent his first three seasons there, but played for the Arizona Cardinals last season. He hasn’t been a full-time starter since his rookie season in Buffalo when he started 15 games as a right tackle.
The 26-year-old from Pineville, La., played 11 games with three starts last year for Arizona and started seven games in each of the 2021 and 2020 seasons. In total, he has played 49 career regular-season games with 32 starts.
Ford played at Oklahoma University with Brown, who the Bengals are signing to a four-year deal to shore up the left tackle position and beef up protection for Joe Burrow. Cincinnati overhauled the offensive line last offseason with the addition of center Ted Karras, right guard Alex Cappa and right tackle La’el Collins in free agency, and 2022 fourth-round draft pick Cordell Volson won the left guard job in training camp.
Karras and Cappa are signed to multi-year deals, as is Collins, but Collins is a question mark coming off January surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL and it appears the plan after signing Brown was to move Jonah Williams to right tackle. Williams’ fifth-year option was picked up last April.
Ford adds another experienced option to the mix.
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