{"id":265888,"date":"2026-04-25T13:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265888\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T13:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:09:24","slug":"bengals-select-texas-am-de-cashius-howell-in-second-round-of-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265888\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals select Texas A&#038;M DE Cashius Howell in second round of 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Cincinnati Bengals used their first pick of the 2026 NFL Draft to add to their defense on Friday night.With the No. 41 overall pick in the second round, the Bengals selected Texas A&amp;M defensive end Cashius Howell.The selection came after the Bengals traded the No. 10 overall pick to the New York Giants for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, leaving Cincinnati without its first round pick in this year&#8217;s draft.Howell started his career at Bowling Green for three seasons before transferring to Texas A&amp;M for the last two years.The 2025 season marked a breakout season for the senior, with 11.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss. That came after Howell had four sacks during the 2024 season.For his college career, Howell recorded 27 sacks and 35.5 tackles for loss. He won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year award in 2025.Howell is listed at 6-foot-3, 253 pounds and ranked by ESPN as the sixth-best defensive end prospect in the class. The selection of Howell marked the second straight draft in which the Bengals selected an edge rusher out of Texas A&amp;M. Shemar Stewart was selected by the Bengals with the No. 18 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Adding to the defense has been a priority for the Bengals this offseason, after the team allowed 28.9 points per game last season, third worst in the NFL.In addition to Lawrence, edge rusher Boye Mafe, safety Bryan Cook and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen were also brought in through free agency.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tCINCINNATI \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Cincinnati Bengals used their first pick of the 2026 NFL Draft to add to their defense on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>With the No. 41 overall pick in the second round, the Bengals selected Texas A&amp;M defensive end Cashius Howell.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis content is imported from Twitter.<br \/>\n\tYou may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.\n<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Bengals are drafting Texas A&amp;M edge Cashius Howell with the 41st overall pick.<\/p>\n<p>*First Team All-American<br \/>*SEC Defensive Player of the Year<br \/>*11.5 sacks, 14 TFL, 31 tackles<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WLWT?ref_src=twsrc^tfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@WLWT<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AsOTYMz530\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/AsOTYMz530<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jaron May (@jaron_may) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jaron_may\/status\/2047823538254455111?ref_src=twsrc^tfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The selection came after the Bengals traded the No. 10 overall pick to the New York Giants for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, leaving Cincinnati without its first round pick in this year&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p>Howell started his career at Bowling Green for three seasons before transferring to Texas A&amp;M for the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 season marked a breakout season for the senior, with 11.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss. That came after Howell had four sacks during the 2024 season.<\/p>\n<p>For his college career, Howell recorded 27 sacks and 35.5 tackles for loss. He won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year award in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Howell is listed at 6-foot-3, 253 pounds and ranked by ESPN as the sixth-best defensive end prospect in the class. <\/p>\n<p>The selection of Howell marked the second straight draft in which the Bengals selected an edge rusher out of Texas A&amp;M. Shemar Stewart was selected by the Bengals with the No. 18 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. <\/p>\n<p>Adding to the defense has been a priority for the Bengals this offseason, after the team allowed 28.9 points per game last season, third worst in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Lawrence, edge rusher Boye Mafe, safety Bryan Cook and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen were also brought in through free agency.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals used their first pick of the 2026 NFL Draft to add to their defense on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4144,7704,4017,99420,99417,17990,6183,11774,99419,99250,99421,9738,60181,99418,27,29,28,7741],"class_list":{"0":"post-265888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-career","9":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-first-pick","12":"tag-howell","13":"tag-loss","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-no","16":"tag-overall-pick","17":"tag-sack","18":"tag-safety-bryan-cook","19":"tag-season","20":"tag-second-round","21":"tag-tackle","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-texas-headlines","24":"tag-texas-news","25":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}