D+
Cincinnati Bengals
A passer of the future in Mendoza, and a D+, for the Bengals.
by aaaaa22222 ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 20 picks
· 19 steals
· 0 reaches
Call it larceny. Colton Hood sat on the board until Round 5, Pick 13, and the Bengals did not need to be asked twice. A D+ that will need time and luck to look better.
They handed away value on the phones that the picks cannot earn back. The whole projection now runs through Fernando Mendoza; hit there and everything else looks smarter.
The Tyler Linderbaum deal gives the class an established piece to lean on.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 10 they get a rangy last line of defense, outstanding value to boot.
In No. 11 they get a premier pass rusher at fair value. Need was not the driver here.
In Round 1, Pick 15 they get a problem off the edge, and a steal at that. More want than need.
In the 16th pick they get a coverage-and-run second-level piece at a price that makes it sweeter. A clean fit for the roster.
In No. 27 they get the arm they will build around, and a steal at that. A real need, handled.
In pick 30 they get a sticky cover corner, outstanding value to boot. Exactly the need they had to hit.
A running back of that caliber at the Round 2 slot is the definition of value, full stop. It fills a real need, too.
Sonny Styles in slot 37 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. A need, and now a little less of one.
They will replay Spencer Fano at the 38th overall pick for years; that is how good the value is. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Jermod McCoy at pick No. 43 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Circle this one: Kadyn Proctor at the 57th overall pick is a fall that decides a draft. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Kenyon Sadiq at slot 60 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Somehow Carnell Tate was still sitting there in the Round 3 slot, and they pounced on premier wide receiver value. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Taking Avieon Terrell in Round 3, Pick 8 is close to grand larceny; a cornerback that good had no business lasting this long. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Kayden McDonald in pick No. 90 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Steal is underselling it; Olaivavega Ioane at No. 98 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The roster fit checks out.
A top-tier safety at a bargain, Dillon Thieneman in pick 114, plain and simple. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.
They robbed the room for Akheem Mesidor here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
The board fumbled Jordyn Tyson all the way to the 137th pick, and they scooped it up. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
You do not let a cornerback like Colton Hood reach slot 153 and blink. They did not. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.