The Bengals’ 2021 Draft: A Tale of One Home Run and Several Costly Misses
When the Cincinnati Bengals made Ja’Marr Chase the fifth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, they didn’t just reunite him with his college quarterback - they landed a generational talent. Chase has already etched his name into the franchise’s history books and is well on his way to becoming the best wide receiver the Bengals have ever had.
That pick was a slam dunk. No debate.
But once the champagne dried and the cameras moved on from the Chase-Burrow reunion, the rest of that 2021 draft class took a turn - and not in a good way.
Let’s rewind to Day 2 of that draft. The Bengals held the 38th overall pick in the second round.
Sitting on the board was Alabama defensive tackle Christian Barmore, a disruptive interior pass rusher with first-round buzz. Cincinnati had D.J.
Reader anchoring the middle, sure, but Barmore would’ve been the perfect complement - a Geno Atkins-type presence to collapse the pocket from the inside. Atkins, after all, had just left the game following the 2020 season.
Instead, the Bengals passed. They let the New England Patriots trade up and grab Barmore.
And while Bill Belichick’s draft record is a mixed bag, his eye for defensive talent has rarely been in question - especially when he’s trading up for a guy. That move should’ve raised alarms.
Fast forward to now: Barmore, despite a health scare in 2024 that sidelined him with blood clots, returned to form this season and became a cornerstone of the Patriots’ Super Bowl LX defense. He’s back to being a force in the middle, the kind of player who commands double teams and still disrupts the game.
So what did the Bengals get in return from that trade with New England? Three picks: one second-rounder and two fourth-rounders. The haul turned into Jackson Carman, Tyler Shelvin, and D’Ante Smith.
Let’s break that down.
Jackson Carman had red flags before the draft - off-field concerns and questions about his fit at the next level. He never really found his footing in Cincinnati, struggling to develop into a reliable starter.
Tyler Shelvin? A massive interior lineman from LSU, he looked more like a nod to the Tigers’ 2019 national title team than a calculated roster move.
His athletic profile was historically underwhelming - his Relative Athletic Score (RAS) was 0.86 out of 10, ranking him 1198th out of 1309 defensive tackles since 1987. That’s not a typo.
He barely cracked the top 1,200.
D’Ante Smith? He’s been out of the league since 2024.
That’s the return package for a player who’s now a foundational piece on a Super Bowl defense. It’s a brutal miss. And it’s not an isolated one.
The Bengals’ recent draft history, particularly when it comes to defensive linemen, shows a pattern of betting on traits and upside over proven production. McKinnley Jackson, a third-round pick in 2024, wasn’t quite a Shelvin-level swing-and-miss, but he was inactive for most of the 2025 season. It’s fair to wonder if the Bengals are chasing traits that only they can see - and if that approach is catching up to them.
Take a look at the college pass rush production percentile rankings for some of their recent picks:
- Joseph Ossai: 54th percentile
- Myles Murphy: 53rd
- Cam Sample: 31st
- McKinnley Jackson: 44th
- Tyler Shelvin: 9th
Those numbers don’t lie. The Bengals aren’t drafting high-floor, high-output players.
They’re swinging on raw tools and hoping for the best - a strategy that demands time, coaching, and patience. Unfortunately, this team doesn’t have the luxury of time.
Joe Burrow called this offseason “as big as it gets.” He’s not wrong.
The Bengals missed the playoffs again, and the clock is ticking. If the front office can’t surround Burrow with a more complete, playoff-ready roster, the franchise quarterback might start looking elsewhere.
This is a pivotal moment for the Bengals. They’ve got the centerpiece in Burrow.
They’ve got the superstar weapon in Chase. But they need more than just Day 1 hits.
They need to start stacking wins on Days 2 and 3 of the draft - especially in the trenches.
Christian Barmore represents what could’ve been: a disruptive, game-changing force who’s already helped lead a defense to the mountaintop. Instead, the Bengals are still searching for a consistent 3-technique while watching Barmore rack up sacks in New England.
The 2021 draft wasn’t a total loss - Chase alone makes it one of the most impactful drafts in team history. But outside of that first-round layup, the rest of the class serves as a cautionary tale. If Cincinnati wants to maximize their Super Bowl window with Burrow, they’ll need to start hitting more than just the obvious picks.
The margin for error is shrinking. The 2026 NFL Draft is coming fast. Let’s see if the Bengals learn from the past - or repeat it.