B-
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals checked most of the boxes and earned a B-.
by Warren1 ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 3 steals
· 2 reaches
The war room fell hard for George Gumbs Jr., and it showed at the 199th overall pick: 69 picks ahead of a board that had other ideas.
The McNeil-Warren value carries more weight than any single miss elsewhere. The cornerback hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
On the needs board they went 4 of 8, with tight end the one that mattered most. The weekend tilted hard toward the defense.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the cornerback spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 10 they get a coverage-and-run second-level piece at fair value.
A market-rate interior defensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Caleb Banks. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Jacob Rodriguez at No. 72 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
The board fumbled Emmanuel McNeil-Warren all the way to pick 110, and they scooped it up. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Zane Durant slipping to slot 189 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
George Gumbs Jr. in the Round 6 slot is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Tyren Montgomery in the Round 7 slot. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A premium they did not need to pay, John Michael Gyllenborg a notch or two before his time. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.