The Cincinnati Bengals hold the 17th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and that pick feels destined to be a defensive pick for the franchise. What if they could not only have a selection midway through the first round but late in round one as well? This is something that was spoken into existence on Mina Kimes' podcast when she had Dane Brugler of The Athletic on for a live mock draft.
This mock draft was different than most, however. Kimes would give Brugler options for what he could do with each pick and sometimes would throw a fun trade in as an option.
When they got to the 17th pick (roughly 28 minutes into the podcast), Kimes floated the options of the Bengals taking either Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell or Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart. Brugler ultimately went with Stewart.
"I'm gonna go with the guy that's 6'5", 275 pounds and is just scratching the surface of how good he could be as an edge rusher," Brugler explained. "Bengals fans maybe cringe a little bit. They think of Myles Murphy and some of the other edges that haven't worked out but I really like the potential of Stewart and what he could be, so I'm gonna lean that way."
Bengals go big in Mina Kimes' mock draft exercise
The real fun was later on in the first round of this mock draft exercise when the Detroit Lions were on the clock with the 28th pick (roughly 45 minutes into the podcast). The options that Kimes floated to Brugler were the Lions either staying put and drafting Boston College's Donovan Ezeiruaku or acquiring Trey Hendrickson in a trade with Cincinnati that would send Hendrickson to the Motor City and give the Bengals the 28th overall pick.
Brugler, of course, went with the trade for Hendrickson. His reasoning was that, A) This is a fantasy scenario and B) The Lions are in their contention window right now so why not go for it?
The Bengals then were back on the clock with the 28th pick and selected Ezeiruaku. If this happened in real life (which let's be real, this isn't too crazy of a scenario), Bengals fans might be peeved about Hendrickson leaving but the team would have replaced him with not one, but two new pass rushers in Stewart and Ezeiruaku and would have saved money in the process.
This was a fun and unique way to do a mock draft as we normally see the same players go to the same teams. The Bengals would certainly be the center of attention if things played out this way for them on draft night.