{"id":695731,"date":"2026-01-22T07:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/695731\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:07:22","slug":"mel-kiper-jr-grants-the-wish-of-bengals-fans-in-new-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/695731\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel Kiper Jr. grants the wish of Bengals fans in new mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 21, 2026, 9:22 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

Most Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> fans have one name atop their 2026 NFL draft wishlists:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all Ohio bias playing into the hopes, either. Downs is one of the best safety prospects to enter the pros in years. The Bengals<\/a> have struggled horrendously since the ill-advised mishap that saw Jessie Bates leave the team.<\/p>\n

And Bengals fans aren\u2019t alone with the idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Mel Kiper Jr.<\/a> just dished his newest mock draft and has the Bengals grabbing Downs at No. 10:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDowns reads plays so well and has the speed and wrap-up technique to wrangle and take down ball carriers. And don’t sleep on his ball skills: Downs had two interceptions in each of his three college seasons. He’s exactly the type of player the Bengals need on the back end. Cincinnati allowed the NFL’s most yards per play in two of the past three campaigns, including 6.2 yards in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:Bengals draft outlook: The last 10 picks at No. 10 overall<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no great secret that Downs would be a good pick for the Bengals, all things considered. They haven\u2019t given up hope on Jordan Battle just yet (unless something much bigger comes along).\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the rest of the depth chart is a mess. Geno Stone is a free agent and names like Tycen Anderson and Daijahn Anthony apparently couldn\u2019t be trusted to see reps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rookies usually need time to get acclimated to the NFL and Bengals fans probably don\u2019t love the idea of throwing guys in the fire after watching rookie linebackers for most of last year. But Downs learning on the fly is probably better than anything they fielded last year, anyway.<\/p>\n

RELATED:Bengals players who regressed the most in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 21, 2026, 9:22 a.m. ET Most Cincinnati Bengals fans have one name atop their 2026 NFL draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,95930,95913,96027,101505,95892,97484,101504,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,97485,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-695731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbengals","16":"tag-sstsnbengals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","19":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","20":"tag-tagcollege-sports","21":"tag-tagdaijahn-anthony","22":"tag-tagespn-inc","23":"tag-taggeno-stone","24":"tag-tagjessie-bates-iii","25":"tag-tagnational-sports","26":"tag-tagnfl","27":"tag-tagnfl-hub","28":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-tagtycen-anderson","31":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115937492911721192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}