B-
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals won the night they stopped Golday from sliding. Grade: B-.
by Future Defacto GM1 ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 5 steals
· 1 reaches
You could see the war room lean forward. Jake Golday at the 110th pick is the sort of fall that does not happen, except it just did. Solid and sensible more than spectacular: a B-.
A whole weekend of picks and quarterback is somehow still a want. They are betting Styles proves the room right and everyone else wrong.
On the needs board they went 6 of 8, with cornerback the one that mattered most. The weekend tilted hard toward the defense.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 10 they get a three-down second-level presence, though they paid up to get him.
A straight-up fair deal on Lee Hunter at the 41st pick, value and slot in agreement. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Somehow A.J. Haulcy was still sitting there in slot 72, and they pounced on premier safety value. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
They robbed the room for Jake Golday here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They let Dae'Quan Wright come to them and pounced at pick 189. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
A quiet steal in the Round 6 slot: Jeff Caldwell for less than the market said. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Jadon Canady at No. 221 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Value with a capital V on Jeremiah Wright in the 226th overall pick, a genuine coup. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.