The Cincinnati Bengals’ season is over, so coaches and players are cleaning out lockers, having year-end discussions, and planning vacations. Of course, for the front office, now is the busy season. Who will the team retain? Who will they target in free agency? What about the draft? For the tiny scouting department in Cincinnati, this is about as spread thin as things can be. Add in the fact that de facto GM Duke Tobin isn’t even the one who negotiates deals. However, it’s time to take a way-too-early look at the 2026 NFL Draft.
After falling to the Browns in Week 18, the Bengals’ range for picks was anywhere between eight and ten. After the Saints and Chiefs also lost, the Bengals were slotted with the 10th-overall pick. Now, fans get to stress over the Chiefs picking one spot ahead, presumably ready to poach any player the fans have their hearts set on.
Of course, at 10th overall, the Bengals are in a good spot. There are plenty of great defenders worthy of the pick, plus an expectation that two or three quarterbacks will be taken. The board is very likely going to fall nicely for the Bengals. Who are the way-too-early targets? Here are five.
Caleb Downs, SAF, Ohio State
There is a healthy crossover of Ohio State and Bengals fans, so drafting Caleb Downs would be well-received. Even among those with little-brother syndrome would have to agree that Downs would immediately upgrade the defense.
The Bengals haven’t used a first-round pick on a safety since Dax Hill. Downs should be considered better than Hill because the defensive coaching staff had no idea what to do with Hill and only recently figured it out.
Downs is a true plug-and-play pick. Bengals fans have watched Kyle Hamilton star for the Baltimore Ravens. Here is your Kyle Hamilton.
Caleb Downs should be a top 10 pick… but we know NFL teams will overthink pic.twitter.com/KEVCYIKOaY
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) January 8, 2026
He can play free safety and strong safety. Downs is adept at playing in the box and coming up in run defense, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play back. His instincts and ability to read route concepts and react are second-to-none. If you’re box score watching a safety, you’re doing it wrong; Downs’ impact goes way beyond the scoresheet.
In his time in college, both at Alabama as a freshman and at Ohio State the last two seasons, Downs has amassed 257 total tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, six interceptions (two each year, oddly enough), 12 pass breakups, three forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. Oh, and he returned a punt for a touchdown for Ohio State in 2024.
Downs was a back-to-back unanimous All-American in 2024 and 2024, won the Thorpe Award as the top defensive back, the Lott IMPACT Trophy, and even finished ninth in Heisman voting. Within the Big Ten, he was a two-time Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year, and won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honor this year.
Positional value or not, Downs would elevate the defense.
Rueben Bain Jr., EDGE, Miami (FL)
With Trey Hendrickson likely leaving via free agency and no real answer in terms of pass rushing in the room, the Bengals need to upgrade. Sure, Myles Murphy has started to come on (three years later), but he’s more of a Sam Hubbard-type run stopper. Shemar Stewart was nothing close to being worth the 17th-overall pick (and we knew that at the time), but his life could be made easier with a legitimate threat opposite him.
Enter Rueben Bain Jr. Bain was a highly-touted recruit out of high school and ultimately signed with Miami (FL). As a true freshman, he appeared in 13 games with 12 starts and amassed 44 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, a pass breakup, and three forced fumbles. After battling injuries in 2024, his impact waned a bit. However, this season has been another fantastic one.
You can debate if he’s a DE or an OLB in a 3-4 defense, but you cannot debate that Rueben Bain Jr. will be Top-5 pick pic.twitter.com/2XwvZTgV6K
— Bobby Bishop (@_BobbyBishop) January 1, 2026
An All-American at the position, Bain is entering the CFP Semifinals with 45 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, an interception, a pass breakup, and a forced fumble.
There will be “concerns” about his arm length. However, people with eyes can see that he can overcome it quite easily. Bain is about as relentless and powerful an EDGE out there and could be that instant-impact player the Bengals need since they passed on James Pearce, who set the Falcons’ rookie sack record with 10.5 and 10 tackles for loss.
If the Bengals are serious about upgrading the pass rush, Bain would be a fantastic get.
David Bailey, EDGE, Texas Tech
Another option in the pass rush would be David Bailey. An older prospect than Downs or Bain, Bailey has been productive for his entire four-year collegiate career. In his first three seasons, he was with Stanford. There, he amassed 111 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks, a pass breakup, and a ridiculous seven forced fumbles.
After the 2024 season, he joined the Red Raiders’ incredible portal haul and led Texas Tech to the CFP for the first time. In his 14 games, Bailey totaled 52 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks, three pass breakups, three forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery.
If the Bengals want a guy who was productive in college and would not need much molding, Bailey is the pick. He was a unanimous All-American this year and rocketed up draft boards in his breakout campaign. Anyone who watched the Orange Bowl loss to Oregon could see that he is a game-wrecker.
#TexasTech EDGE David Bailey vs. Oregon
One of the best games that I’ve seen from a defensive prospect this year. Watch how much juice and violence he plays with. pic.twitter.com/EB5WGlWjzk
— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) January 2, 2026
There will be character concerns, however. He was tossed from a game against NC State while at Stanford for brutally stomping on the head of a Wolfpack player. This year, he got into an altercation with a cameraperson after the loss to Arizona State, for some reason.
That could all be explained away as him being a competitor or just letting his emotions run unchecked. He has the talent to be the Bengals’ first-round pick, and we know the team has overlooked character concerns in the past.
Surely, this will all be fleshed out in the Scouting Combine interviews, right?
Peter Woods, DT, Clemson
The Bengals love to go into the draft with at least one glaring need. This year, will that need be on the interior defensive line? Sure, they have Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson going into their third years, but neither has been able to be that impact player. B.J. Hill does have two years left on his contract, but the Bengals need help.
Peter Woods has been a popular pick for the Bengals’ first-round pick for a while. He’s a big, physical, dominating presence in an area where it’s difficult to be one. He started off his career strong as a true freshman and has three seasons of starting experience at a Power 4 program, something the Bengals love.
🔥 WHY HE PROJECTS ELITE
Elite interior defenders check these:
1.Power at point of attack ✅
2.Explosiveness ✅https://t.co/N0QH49dHK6 defense reliability ✅
4.Positional versatility ✅
5.Pass rush upside ✅Woods checks every box.
Peter Woods is the kind of DL you draft and… pic.twitter.com/ucEWQz85M4
— Korey 🐅 (@BengalsKorey) January 6, 2026
In his three seasons with Clemson, Woods amassed 84 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, a pass breakup, and two forced fumbles. Sure, that doesn’t leap off the page for the 10th-overall pick, but he’s a defensive tackle; those big stats are harder to come by.
He has better burst off the line than you’d expect from a defensive tackle. Plus, he could move around the line, opening things up for Stewart, Murphy, etc. He can collapse the pocket from inside, something the Bengals have been missing for years.
He could be considered a project, so insert eye roll here.
A Tackle
The wild card is that a tackle is BPA when the Bengals’ time is called. Either Spencer Fano or Francis Mauigoa would be a nice addition. While the Bengals like to go into drafts with at least one glaring need, they also like to draft a year ahead to potentially fill a hole in the player’s second season (SEE: Jessie Bates III, Dax Hill, Shemar Stewart; Bates was just too good as a rookie, so the plan moved up a year).
Orlando Brown Jr., while still solid, is entering his age-30 season on the final year of his contract. If the board falls a certain way, the Bengals could look to add the heir-apparent for 2027 and beyond.
Fano and Mauigoa were both right tackles in college, so if they were picked, they’d have to move to the left side, of course.
Both tackles have future Pro Bowler written all over them, and either could be a long-term answer.
Other names that could be in play are Jeremiyah Love and Arvell Reese. The Bengals likely aren’t taking a wide receiver this early, so that rules out the rest of the consensus top players. Love is a running back, so it would be a risk. Chase Brown is a great RB1, but after that, there isn’t much. Samaje Perine is solid, but if you can upgrade there, it would be welcome. Love and Brown could be a one-two punch similar to the Lions’. However, that seems incredibly unlikely.
Reese would be a fun pick as well, assuming he declares. As a linebacker for Ohio State, he was the talk of the town for the first half of the year. Then, he quieted down. He finished his final six games without a sack. The Bengals would likely move him to full-time EDGE (as any NFL team should), so he could be the answer there. It’s just unlikely that he’s there at 10.
All in all, the Bengals have plenty of choices. Who knows, they could even trade back to stockpile resources.