{"id":874873,"date":"2026-04-26T04:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874873\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T04:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:42:17","slug":"meet-the-2026-cincinnati-bengals-draft-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874873\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the 2026 Cincinnati Bengals draft class"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> draft class is complete!<\/p>\n

Despite entering this year\u2019s NFL Draft without a first-round pick, the Bengals had what was viewed as one of the best hauls of all 32 teams, thanks to the team making great value picks after great value picks throughout Rounds 2-7.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s take a look at this year\u2019s draft picks.<\/p>\n

2026 Cincinnati Bengals Draft Class<\/p>\n

The Bengals traded pick #10 for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. Lawrence is an immediate upgrade in the middle of the Cincinnati defense. He will make everyone around him better and create pressure on the interior. While players like Rueben Bain and Caleb Downs would have been available, Lawrence is a win-now move. We cannot complain about the Bengals finally showing some urgency.<\/p>\n

Round 2 (41): Cashius Howell, DE, Texas A&M<\/a>Round 3 (72): Tacario Davis, CB, Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

In the second round, the Cincinnati Bengals selected Cashius Howell. Howell is 6-foot-2 and 252 pounds. He has a great arsenal of rush moves, bends gracefully around the corner, and is comfortable dropping into coverage. Howell had 11.5 sacks during the 2025 season. He is arguably the best pass rusher at defensive end immediately for this team.<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl last year with a heavy rotation of defensive linemen; the Bengals have truly invested in doing similar.<\/p>\n

In the third round, Cincinnati stuck with upgrading the defense by selecting Washington corner Tacario Davis. This was a round early for me, but listening to Al Golden discussing using him to cover tight ends makes a lot of sense. Davis is 6-foot-4 with long arms, and he ran a 4.41 40-yard dash.<\/p>\n

Having a vision for getting him early playing tine is all you can ask. He needs to cut down on penalties, but this is a 21-year-old corner that could end up outplaying his draft position.<\/p>\n

Round 4 (128): Connor Lew, C, Auburn<\/a>Round 4 (140): Colbie Young, WR, Georgia<\/a>Round 6 (189): Brian Parker II, OL, Duke<\/a>Round 7 (221): Jack Endries, TE, Texas<\/a>Round 7 (226): Landon Robinson, DT, Navy<\/a><\/p>\n

With the first of two fourth-round picks after trading down from pick 110, the Bengals selected Auburn center Connor Lew. I think he was fantastic value at pick 128 in the fourth round. He was my #97 player on my top 300 board. Lew is still just 20 years old. He would have likely been a top 50 player if he hadn\u2019t torn his ACL in October.<\/p>\n

Lew blocks well on the move, has advanced technique for his age, and has really good size for a center at 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds.<\/p>\n

With the second fourth-round selection, the Bengals selected wide receiver Colbie Young at pick 140. This one shocked me. He was suspended from the team after an assault charge in 2024. He also had a fractured fibula this past season after being back with Georgia in 2025.<\/p>\n

Young does have good size, being 6-foot-4 and 221 pounds. He ran a 4.49 40-yard dash time. This one is a bit puzzling, but let\u2019s see what happens.<\/p>\n

In the sixth round, the Bengals selected offensive lineman Brian Parker II from Duke. The St. Xavier alum was my 74th-ranked player. He played right tackle this season, but is expected to kick inside to the interior. Fantastic depth behind Dalton Risner at guard and likely to be his eventual replacement.<\/p>\n

Fantastic value for the Bengals here.<\/p>\n

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Check out 2026 NFL season odds at FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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With the first of two seventh-round picks, the Bengals selected tight end Jack Endries, a guy who was 99th overall on my board, and they got him in the seventh round. Endries was more productive at Cal but developed as a blocker this year at Texas.<\/p>\n

Incredible value selection here for the Bengals.<\/p>\n

With the second seventh-round selection, the Bengals drafted Navy defensive tackle Landon Robinson. An athletic freak, a friend of the show Bengals & Brews, and just a damn good football player. I love this pick.<\/p>\n

Overall, this capped off a really good draft outside of the Colbie Young pick for me. Cheers to the Bengals for getting us excited about the 2026 NFL season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Cincinnati Bengals draft class is complete! Despite entering this year\u2019s NFL Draft without a first-round pick,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,39983,2296,7,6],"class_list":["post-874873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnati-bengals-draft","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116469179574386161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874873","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=874873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}