This keeps happening to the Cincinnati Bengals every year in the NFL Draft, and it has to stop if they want to keep Joe Burrow engaged.

ByMatt Fitzgerald|6 hours ago

NFL: SEP 21 Falcons at Panthers | Icon Sportswire/GettyImages

The Cincinnati Bengals have had so many misfires, false starts, or belated payoffs from the NFL Draft that it's honestly exhausting to ruminate over on a near-daily basis.

Congratulations to the Bengals now that 2023 first-round pick Myles Murphy is finally showing something in his third season. Nice to see Jalen Davis fill in at nickel so that 2022 first-rounder Dax Hill can finally settle in as a boundary corner — his third different position he's played in Cincinnati.

I won't bore you with more details. That's the tip of the iceberg as to why Joe Burrow wonders whether he still has fun playing football.

Anyway, Thursday Night Football's matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers was just another painful reminder of what could've been for the Bengals. Also further proof that I could personally run their scouting department better than the knuckleheads they have in charge.

James Pearce Jr. makes Bengals drafting Shemar Stewart look like a disaster

I could take a vindication victory lap on my rogue theory that Cincinnati should've mortgaged the future back in 2021 to land Penei Sewell, Ja'marr Chase, and Kyle Pitts. Imagine the latter in an offense with Burrow, Chase, and Tee Higgins, with an elite tackle in Sewell blocking. Pitts had a cool 11 catches for 166 yards and three TDs in Atlanta's 29-28 win.

That's not why we're here, though, for that is Fantasy/Shadow Team Land and the opportunity passed the Bengals by. Not my fault. I DM'd them on X/Twitter about my master plan. Shockingly they didn't listen.

What's also on public record is my love for James Pearce Jr., and in fact, the Falcons loved him so much that they traded back into the first round of this year's draft to get him at 26th overall. Atlanta had already drafted Georgia's Jalon Walker, but felt the need for another dynamic pass rusher, hence the audacious move.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati stuck and picked as is the typical protocol, unnecessarily rolling the dice on athletic specimen Shemar Stewart. He who had 4.5 sacks in three years at Texas A&M, whereas Pearce had 17.5 in his last two seasons for the Tennessee Volunteers.

Pearce's pass rush win rate (23%) and run stop rate (10.1%) in 2024 were elite, dwarfing/almost doubling the respective totals for Stewart (12.4% and 5.5%). Let's check in to see how they're doing at the NFL level, shall we?

Quite a contrast, no? And look, the full book isn't written on Stewart's NFL career, but my goodness, he's off to a dreadful, injury-plagued start. Meanwhile, the more aerodynamic, slender-built Pearce is dominating to the tune of eight sacks.

If only the most basic advanced metrics could've told us this was coming, right? Stewart has had six total tackles (two solo) in five games for Cincinnati. Zero sacks.

How about this observation from @battl3szn on X/Twitter:

"James Pearce Jr. has 7.5 sacks in the last 32 days. Shemar Stewart has 4.5 sacks in the last 4 years."

LOL.

Hand up: I will say I had the Ravens' Mike Green as the top EDGE in the 2025 draft, but I was admittedly not locked in on all his off-field issues. This is where it'd pay to be in the trenches of a personnel department. You know, living the dream. Ian Rapoport's disturbing revelation about Green's interview process re: character concerns would've had me ejecting him from my draft board entirely.

I just feel like I sit back every year, watching stupid-obvious players the Bengals should've drafted shine elsewhere, and think to myself, "What in the world are we DOING!?"

This happens in real time during the draft. It happens during the ensuing regular season. I'm so tired of it. The Bengals have to get it right or else, no, Joe Burrow ain't gonna wanna stick around.

https://stripehype.com/bengals-severe-buyers-remorse-falcons-rookie-keeps-soaring?utm_source=gol

I'm more pissed about them taking Knight instead of Ratledge in the second.

These 20/20 hindsight articles are more useless than mock drafts.

For as much as I have bashed Stewart, I'm still waiting for him to bloom.

Kinda wonder if it is how Golden Shower is using him.

13 minutes ago, High School Harry said:

These 20/20 hindsight articles are more useless than mock drafts.

For as much as I have bashed Stewart, I'm still waiting for him to bloom.

Kinda wonder if it is how Golden Shower is using him.

On 12/8/2025 at 4:14 PM, High School Harry said:

I throw in Shemar Stewart. Biggest first round bust (so far) in Bengals history.


WTF dude?

How dare they criticize the player I've been criticizing! The nerve!

I think there was a sizable portion of Bengals fans who didn’t like the Stewart pick. I listed him as the one player I didn’t want them to draft in an earlier thread. Nothing has changed my opinion since then. He’s been hurt and ineffective. Or ineffective and hurt. The rare times he does beat a block is followed by the inability to make a play, exactly like he did in college. It doesn’t seem like he has any instincts or feel for the game and his physical advantages are lessened against NFL players. There were a bunch of other options in the draft that were passed on to draft Stewart and it’s not looking good at this point.

6 hours ago, gupps said:

I'm more pissed about them taking Knight instead of Ratledge in the second.

why?

he has a 49.2 pass blocking grade.....65th for guards (there are 64 starting guards)

fairchild has a 65.3 pass blocking grade...

youre mad they took the better pass blocking guard in a later round, netting a starting LB in the process?

are we pretending guard run blocking is more important in this offense than pass blocking? we cant be saying that, right?

1 hour ago, Inigo Montoya said:

I think there was a sizable portion of Bengals fans who didn’t like the Stewart pick. I listed him as the one player I didn’t want them to draft in an earlier thread. Nothing has changed my opinion since then. He’s been hurt and ineffective. Or ineffective and hurt. The rare times he does beat a block is followed by the inability to make a play, exactly like he did in college. It doesn’t seem like he has any instincts or feel for the game and his physical advantages are lessened against NFL players. There were a bunch of other options in the draft that were passed on to draft Stewart and it’s not looking good at this point.

yeah the stewert pick isnt anything good thus far.. and thats a bummer..

here is a breakdown of picks after stewert, skipping pisitions we werent going to draft, WR, QB, etc...

^^^ Missed first 7 weeks. cant be ranked due to lack of minimum snaps. 2 picks in like 7 games is solid tho

so there are 3-4 guys in here that the teams who drafted them can feel fairly good about.... out of the 15 picks made after stewert.

Nolen before stewert is having a great year.

walker before him edge, is having a really solid year.

kenneth grant before him sucks

tyler booker before him is solid for the cowboys

etc... but those guys were gone...

id probably have preferred starks.. but he hasnt exactly been a shell shocker...

Pearce was projected lower than stewert in every mock and draft evanuation site i can find currently... so everyone on earth put him below stewert. just like Myles Murphy was a top 10 pick projection from a major program.

out of the top 10-12 the draft falls off, out of the first round you are around 50/50 hit rates, after that its throwing darts..

super high rate of success in the top 10-12 depending on year.

23 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

after that its throwing darts

The moral of the story is, if you're going to play darts with Duke Tobin, wear a cup.

yeah the stewert pick isnt anything good thus far.. and thats a bummer..

here is a breakdown of picks after stewert, skipping pisitions we werent going to draft, WR, QB, etc...

^^^ Missed first 7 weeks. cant be ranked due to lack of minimum snaps. 2 picks in like 7 games is solid tho

so there are 3-4 guys in here that the teams who drafted them can feel fairly good about.... out of the 15 picks made after stewert.

Nolen before stewert is having a great year.

walker before him edge, is having a really solid year.

kenneth grant before him sucks

tyler booker before him is solid for the cowboys

etc... but those guys were gone...

id probably have preferred starks.. but he hasnt exactly been a shell shocker...

Pearce was projected lower than stewert in every mock and draft evanuation site i can find currently... so everyone on earth put him below stewert. just like Myles Murphy was a top 10 pick projection from a major program.

out of the top 10-12 the draft falls off, out of the first round you are around 50/50 hit rates, after that its throwing darts..

super high rate of success in the top 10-12 depending on year.

That's some major revisionist history that everybody had Stewart rated ahead of Pearce.

Here's GG's big board from before the draft. Pearce at 7th overall (they loved him) and Stewart at 43 (they figured he'd be overdrafted but not work out.

Heck I won the Bengals draft prediction contest by suggesting the Bengals would blow the pick on Stewart.

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