Bengals were so close yet so far from Seahawks star in NFL Draft

The NFL Honors and announcement of the newest Pro Football Hall of Fame came and went with nary an ounce of respect for the Cincinnati Bengals. Rather than a think piece on that, I've opted to just give my two cents on it here, since it ties into the subject at hand.

Those who vote of the NFL's top awards and those who vote for the Hall of Fame don't respect the Bengals organization. It's an earned, deserved reputation. It's as simple as that.

How does this apply to the headline here? One reason among many: The Bengals took a wild gamble on Shemar Stewart with the 17th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. In doing so, they passed up one of the defensive stalwarts from the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks.

This speaks to Cincinnati's flaws as a franchise, but also encapsulates why they're disrespected at every turn. Their thought process on team building is scattershot at best. Thus, the coaching staff is constantly trying to make square-peg players fit in round holes. It seldom works.

Nick Emmanwori confirms Bengals were seriously interested in him in 2025 NFL Draft

In a press conference before Super Bowl LX, Seahawks nickelback extraordinaire Nick Emmanwori named the Bengals as one of five teams who were seriously interested in him in the first round of last year's draft. His remarks come courtesy of Seahawks Press Pass on YouTube:

"I knew [the Seahawks] were trying to come get me, but I thought it was gonna be at 18, or maybe try to trade back into the first round again. But I'm not sure…I definitely thought it was going to be the Seahawks, Bengals, Bills, Commanders, and the Eagles. Those were the teams I thought for sure was going to pick me up."

Just before Seattle went on the clock to select left guard Grey Zabel at No. 18, Cincinnati took the aforementioned Stewart. Over Emmanwori.

If only anyone could've seen this coming. I had Emmanwori as my 23rd-rated prospect, and Stewart at 52nd overall. So maybe listen to my Bengals mock offseason master plan and what I want them to do in the draft. It just might work out better than what Duke Tobin and Co. scheme up!

But now let me tie back to my larger point about the disrespect for Cincinnati's football operation.

The Bengals marched into 2025 without a clear solution at nickelback. Dax Hill started there, marking his third different position as a starter since being drafted in the first round in 2022.

Sounds like a recipe for success, eh? Especially considering that Hill was coming off a torn ACL and proved he was more comfortable as a boundary cornerback. Whatever. The coaching staff saw things differently I suppose.

Cut to: the defense being historically awful. Squandering another season of injured franchise quarterback Joe Burrow's prime.

Even though the Bengals found a solution down the stretch by promoting practice squad vet Jalen Davis to starting nickel duties, flexing Dax to his preferred spot on the boundary, it was way too late. Playoff hopes were faint at best.

Had Emmanwori landed with the Bengals, lord knows what they would've tried to do with him. They couldn't crack the Dax Hill riddle until his fourth season. The first-round pick after Hill, defensive end Myles Murphy, didn't start popping until the second half of Year 3.

Emmanwori probably would've been deployed as a box safety, or given his freakish athleticism, perhaps even deep safety more often than not. The Seahawks had a clear vision for him. They put him at nickelback, and he's quickly emerged as one of the premier defenders at any position in the NFL. The linchpin of their secondary. Why Seattle is so multiple, versatile, and difficult to figure out from a schematic standpoint.

Just think about how different things could be if the Bengals had Emmanwori at nickel, with Dax and DJ Turner starting on the outside from Week 1 on.

So many Cincinnati fans were advocating for a reunion between ex-Notre Dame and now-Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden and Fighting Irish safety Xavier Watts. He fell to the 96th pick in Atlanta, getting to play next to beloved ex-Bengal Jessie Bates. Cincinnati drafted linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. at No. 49 overall, and he proceeded to be one of the NFL's worst linebackers.

A significant Year 2 leap from Knight would make him a still-below-average starter. A Year 2 leap from Emmanwori and/or Watts would see them become legitimately elite at two positions the Bengals still don't have clear answers for.

...And again, the core of the issue is, there's not much evidence to suggest the Bengals would've properly developed Emmanwori or Watts. Nor would they have had the evaluation wherewithal to play them enough snaps as rookies.

It's darkly hilarious to me that the Bengals had a 50/50 shot at drafting the *correct*, unprecedented freak athlete at a position of need — safety was a bigger need than defensive end, but whatever — in the 2025 NFL Draft. From the looks of it, they couldn't have been more wrong.