Cincinnati Bengals Right On Edge of Top 10 Draft Pick Projection in 2026

Cincinnati has won two games since mid-September, but still will be hard pressed to land a top five pick.

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor watches the play during first half action at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Dec. 7, 2025. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI — The Bengals are slightly favored to earn a top 10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but the easy remaining schedule could keep them out of that group. ESPN's Seth Walder dropped the latest ESPN Football Power Index projections this week, and it slots Cincinnati with a 52.4% chance to get a top-10 pick.

They currently hold the 10th pick.

The chances for a top-five pick are just 2.4%, making Cincinnati extremely likely to fall in the 6-16 pick range based on the final four-game results. Their playoff chances will get completely dashed this weekend if they lose to Baltimore, eliminating them from any chance to win the AFC North.

They can only make the playoffs as an 8-9 or (extremely unlikely) 7-10 division champion.

"We've got to win," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said about the team's outlook on Monday. "It's as simple as that. I don't know what the odds are. I know they're not zero. And so what I told our guys, the odds aren't zero, so we're going to keep fighting, keep scratching, keep clawing, keep approaching every week the way we've been doing it, and we just gotta win."

Walder projects the Bengals with an average draft slot of 10.6 overall, but they'll likely pick closer to 16th given their schedule. Cincinnati faces the fourth-easiest remaining schedule. Their remaining opponents are winning just 34.6% of their games so far this season.

Check out the full top 10 pick chances below:

Draft pick report!

The Raiders are the new favorite to earn the No. 1 overall pick. But a bunch of teams remain in the mix!

Rams pick acquired from Atlanta has an 88% chance to be in the top 10. pic.twitter.com/ne6VQ1gBNG

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) December 8, 2025

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