Now that the dust has settled from the 2025 NFL Draft, all of the experts and the like have put out their respective grades for each of the teams’ hauls. It’s a practice just about anyone with even a cursory understanding of the draft, mostly to praise or criticize teams based on their own rankings and narratives. In the wake of the draft, there is very little point to grading a draft class. For example, the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2021 class was rated highly. Now, four years later, only Ja’Marr Chase and Joseph Ossai remain…and Ossai was just re-signed to a one-year prove-it deal. Needless to say, those positive grades have not aged well.
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Despite the folly, every outlet must capitalize on the chaos and need for gratification in the belief that one team drafted better than another. Of course, at this point in the juncture, who knows how good a draft will be?
Regardless, this year’s report card is out, and instead of making the Dean’s List, the Bengals are at risk of Academic Probation…so to speak.
The Bengals Draft Report Card Is In…And It’s Not Good
This year, the Bengals elected to just pick when they came up and did not trade up or trade back. As a result, the team added Texas A&M EDGE Shemar Stewart, South Carolina linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr., Georgia guard Dylan Fairchild, Clemson linebacker Barrett Carter, Miami (FL) offensive lineman Jalen Rivers, and Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks.
All in all, the Bengals addressed their needs. Of course, one could argue that addressing needs is for free agency, and then the draft is for adding talent. The Bengals needed to add pass-rushing juice while retooling the offensive line. Ideally, these holes would have been filled in free agency, but alas, the Bengals love heading into the draft with obvious deficiencies.
As a result, the team, arguably, reached on its first two picks. Stewart is an uber-athletic EDGE with almost no productivity at the college level. Knight is a leader and will be in the NFL but he’s going to be turning 25 this July. Fairchild was a solid pick, but his teammate, Tate Ratledge, was sitting there in the second,d and the Bengals could have had Kevin Winston Jr. to take over the safety room.
However, going through the draft and saying “what it” for every pick will drive you insane (SEE: 2021 when Jackson Carman was the pick when Creed Humphrey was on the board at a position of need, and the Bengals could have traded back a second time and still picked him).
The Grades Are In
In a collection of grades, René Bugner assigned a GPA to each team in a post on Twitter. As a result, the Bengals finished at the bottom of the NFL.
Across the 24 graders, the Bengals earned nothing better than a B grade and finished with better than a C in just five instances. They were one of five teams with multiple grades worse than a C- (thought they didn’t earn an F, so that’s a plus).
For what it’s worth, our Will Koshover assigned a GPA grade of 2.72 while handing out C+ grades for both top picks.
Most of the ire seems to be surrounding the selection of Stewart with the 17th pick. There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic. He was unproductive in college, and there were other, more productive players at other positions of need on the board. The athletic upside is there, of course, but to this point, have the Bengals successfully developed any of these projects? Since 2020, the Bengals have picked Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Dax Hill, Myles Murphy, and Amarius Mims in the first round, along with Stewart.
Burrow and Chase are no-brainers. They are two of the best at their position and did not need developing. Hill has been incredibly frustrating as the Bengals continuously messed with his development by changing his positions. He enters a contract year (assuming the team doesn’t pick up his fifth-year option) coming off a season-ending injury. Most of the frustration for this year’s pick harkens back to the Murphy pick. Murphy was uber-athletic and had 17.5 sacks to his name after his time at Clemson ended. In the NFL, he’s been a non-factor. He managed three sacks in 2023 and none last year. Mims was solid for the Bengals as the starting right tackle and actually projects to be a long-time starter in that role.
The detractors of the Stewart pick cite his lack of production, which is fair. The folks who praise the pick fixate on his potential and what he could be based on his athletic profile. Obviously, media pundits are closer to the former when it comes to that pick as well as the rest. Will we look back at this class as we do the 2020 class or will it be closer to the 2021 haul?
Time will tell.
