With their first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals selected Texas A&M pass rusher Cashius Howell.
It's no secret that the Bengals and former Aggies have not had the best relationship when it comes to working together, aside from draft picks that have not worked out. That said, could Howell be the final boss for a franchise that insists on drafting from the same school, but to no avail, yet?
We have every reason to believe the answer is yes.
Bengals’ Texas A&M stance deserves a DJ Turner-esque backpedal.
Yes, we previously suggested that the Bengals stay far away from College Station, given their unsuccessful attempts to draft players from that school.
However, one caveat was that Howell would be long gone before Cincinnati was on the clock in the second round. There was no reasonable expectation for him to still be on the board when the Bengals made their selection with the 41st overall pick.
Before the draft, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. listed Howell as one of his Top-10 edge rushing prospects. Kiper said Howell was worthy of a mid to late first-round selection.
Kiper’s partner in crime, Field Yates, thought Howell could go as high as 15 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
At the time, Yates said, “But I think you could have a really good debate in court, about if it’s third and seven, and we absolutely need a sack, who is the player from this year’s draft class, you get one play, who do you want rushing? I can at least make the argument for Cashius Howell.”
When Howell was there in the second round, at 41, he was more than likely the highest-ranked player for the Bengals, despite his now notoriously short arms and outside linebacker pass rusher type that the team usually foregoes.
Nevertheless, Howell’s relentlessness and production are undeniable. And his being there in the second round was surprising. Pleasantly so.
Bengals’ Texas A&M track record is ugly, but change is on the horizon
The Bengals have had their fair share of draft misses out of College Station. Unfortunately, they were not simply the type of late-round picks that the organization could easily move on from without incurring significant dead cap penalties.
The most notable first-round pick that sent the team into a tailspin for years was Cedric Ogbuehi in 2015.
The selection of defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson has not gone the way the Bengals intended or needed it to. Jackson was the 97th overall in the 2024 draft. Unfortunately, his play has not lived up to his Top 100 status thus far for a team that desperately needed help on defense, and particularly at defensive tackle.
However, it is not all on Jackson, as the front office took him at least two rounds earlier than most expected. We can say something similar about Ogbuehi, who should not have gone in the first round.
Most recently, most fans panned the Bengals’ selection of Shemar Stewart in the first round of the 2025 draft. Unfortunately, his rookie season went about as well as many of us expected.
Hope for an improved Stewart could lie in his former teammate, Howell, lining up on the outside, while Stewart uses his style of play to flourish best, on the inside as a 3-4 defensive end or 4-3 defensive tackle.
Nevertheless, the lack of success from recent A&M players taken in the first three rounds of the draft forced the Bengals’ hands to make the aggressive moves they did this offseason in signing Jonathan Allen, Boye Mafe, and trading for Dexter Lawrence, while still needing to add a player of Howell’s stature to a defense searching for answers.
Why this Aggie was the right call for Cincinnati
Despite those other misses, the organization stuck to their board and took a first-round talent that fell to them. Narratives or past mistakes did not sway them. Kudos.
But the biggest difference between those other prospects and their 2026 second-rounder is that the Bengals took Howell well past when most draftniks expected him to come off the board. Contrastingly, the front office selected the other recent Aggies well before they should have.
Howell also flips the script by not being the prototypical 6’5”, long-armed defensive end they usually go for. So much for having a type.
Now, Howell has a chance to overhaul a narrative that perhaps the Bengals should take a break from College Station for a while. Maybe he can be the start of a new trend of successful former Texas A&M players to wear stripes.
That would be perfect timing and aligns flawlessly with everything the C-suite has done this offseason as it attempts to field a winning, championship-caliber defense to pair with its high-powered offense.
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