The Cincinnati Bengals have long held a reputation as a conservative team when it comes to their draft capital. They almost never traded it away, preferring to keep what they have and use it. That took a drastic shift on Saturday when they flipped the 10th pick in the 2026 draft to the New York Giants for star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. It was the epitome of a bombshell. Not only was the trade a surprise, but for New York to get such a high pick out of it was stunning. Trading a top 10 pick for a 28-year-old player who is demanding a massive contract extension rarely happens unless it’s a quarterback.
That move says a couple of things. For one, the Bengals are very much in win-now mode. Joe Burrow is in his prime, as are the other star players on offense. Cincinnati had to get better on defense fast. A rookie wasn’t going to help with that. Dexter does. The other part is this signal of how low the Bengals’ opinion of this draft class was, at least at the top. Experts have said there isn’t much star power this year. Flipping the 10th pick away so easily like that was an obvious sign.
If the Bengals were willing to do that, it would all but confirm the whispers about how the Chicago Bears view their spot at #25.
The Dexter Lawrence trade proves the Bears want out.
There have been rumblings from people close to the organization that the team’s top brass isn’t overly impressed with the likely options at #25. Most of the top pass rushers will be plucked by that point, which is why they’ve pivoted recently to scouting top offensive tackles. The top two safeties will likely be gone. All of the top cornerbacks have lingering question marks. It isn’t a comfortable place to be. When situations like that pop up, the smart thing to do is work the phones and see if you can move down.
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This allows you to accumulate a couple of extra picks and mitigate some of the risk when taking one of these players. We saw them do that on a grander scale in 2023. Rather than take a swing on two quarterbacks they didn’t have much conviction on, general manager Ryan Poles flipped the #1 pick to Carolina for a ton of assets. Then he took somebody he really liked that he knew would be available: Darnell Wright. That move worked out beautifully as the assets helped build a playoff team, and Wright became an All-Pro.
This is where the problem comes up.
Wanting to move down and being able to move down are two different things. For the Bears to accomplish this goal, they will need another team willing to come up. If the low opinion of this draft class is shared across much of the league, then that becomes a major challenge. It is a safe bet Poles has been working the phones for some time, gauging where other teams sit in their evaluations and whether they may have interest in #25. As always, it likely will depend on who is available when the Bears are on the clock.
One thing is certain. Poles will know who to call once that happens. If there is a deal out there to be made, the Bears GM should find it. He has a history of making deals nobody thought were possible. See Chase Claypool and Robert Quinn. The Dexter Lawrence trade was the warning sign everybody had been waiting for. It is the final confirmation that this draft probably won’t have the fix-all solutions many had hoped for. The smart play for a team is to stockpile assets if possible and try to land a few quality starters.
