I guess someone has to finish last?
In the aftermath of the NFL Draft, the same type of content appears online year after year. Instead of all of us taking a collective deep breath and, you know, doing literally anything enjoyable with the last moments of our weekend, we all stay Logged On and pound out draft grades like there's no tomorrow. (Although at certain points this weekend, it did kind of feel that way.)
RELATED: Grading every Bengals 2025 draft pick (with 1 bold prediction for each)
Obviously these grades don't matter – no one knows anything yet – but since there is nothing more powerful than an opinion on the internet, we have no choice but to treat them as scripture. I don't make the rules.
That's an especially big bummer for Bengals fans, because Mel Kiper did *not* have great things to say about their team this weekend. On Sunday morning he dropped his draft grades for every single team in the NFL, and the bad news is that no one fared worse than Cincinnati. The good news is that even the Bengals' awful grade isn't actually that bad. Here's some of what he had to say.
The Bengals got the worst grade of any team in Mel Kiper's NFL Draft recap
"Shemar Stewart has all the explosiveness and power you'd want in an edge rusher. He rockets into the backfield. But the 4.5 career sacks mean this is still a projection. Can he put it all together in the pros? The ceiling is very high, and he will be given every opportunity to reach it. The Bengals don't have much opposite Hendrickson. I ranked Stewart 27th overall ... Cincinnati also went need hunting on Day 2. Demetrius Knight Jr. gives the Bengals an off-ball linebacker, which provides cover in case Germaine Pratt isn't in town for the long haul; he also requested a trade. Dylan Fairchild gives the Bengals a reliable guard, where the pass protection really struggled last season. Neither player came at value, though ... It was sort of a ho-hum draft for the Bengals overall, which is why I gave them a "C" grade."
I mean, I'll take 'ho-hum.' There are *way* worse adjectives that can be – and have been – used for team's draft efforts. In fact, there's a bunch of stuff Kiper said about the Bengals' class that is downright optimistic. So if you want to freak out, I won't get in your way – panicking after a draft class is a time-honored tradition that I don't take lightly – but it does kinda sound like reports of the Bengals' death are greatly exaggerated.