The Bengals Can’t Afford To Gamble On James Pearce Jr.
Credit: Brianna Paciorka via Imagn Images
The Cincinnati Bengals desperately need defensive line help, and there is perhaps no better offseason to address that position than in 2025.
The NFL Draft is absolutely loaded with trench defenders and one player who is projected to be available when the Bengals pick is catching eyeballs.
Could James Pearce Jr. be the steal of the draft? pic.twitter.com/GuJ3TNHBzy
— PFF (@PFF) February 15, 2025
James Pearce Jr. is about as high-level of an athlete as it gets. He’s 6-foot-5, 242 pounds and provides blistering speed off the edge. As a tackler, he hits with the ferocity of a player who is 30 pounds heavier. But recent developments show that there are whispers of character concerns with Pearce. A high school teammate of Pearce’s added in a since-deleted tweet that he “had the worst anger issues ever,” but later walked back on his message by saying “he was (just) a lil crazy”.
While the “if there’s smoke there’s fire” sentiment applies most of the time, there appears to be very little concrete proof of these concerns, or an extensive history of legal problems. The general consensus is that these rumors are largely overblown.
Not sure if there's more severe things behind the scene on James Pearce Jr but the only concerning thing I've found was that he got arrested after disobeying police during a traffic stop on suspicions of speeding and driving on a suspended license in '23. Charges were dismissed.
— Russell Brown (@RussNFLDraft) February 19, 2025
The draft is two months from now, and the NFL Combine is next weekend. Even if teams are still hesitant to give him a look, Pearce still has plenty of time to alleviate any concerns.
That’s not to say drafting Pearce wouldn’t be a gamble of a draft pick, and doubly so for the Bengals, who have struggled to maximize on their draft gambles of late. There are also concerns about Pearce’s volatility in production. Scouts say his technique as a pass rusher needs some refinement. He was heavily reliant on his athleticism in college to cruise by opposing offensive tackles, which is much easier to do against the University of Arkansas than against the Detroit Lions.
Even Mel Kiper Jr. (and feel about him as you may), who has been analyzing drafts since he was in diapers, has had a hard time analyzing Pearce as a prospect.
“I think every evaluator will admit this: There are some players that you just don’t know,” Kiper said on the First Draft podcast. “You really can’t feel strongly one way or the other about a player. You’re almost (resigned) to throw your hands up and say, ‘I don’t get this, I can’t make a strong argument to take him or not take him,’ and James Pearce Jr. is one of those guys, because I thought going in… that pass-rusher who’s going to get a ton of sacks, who’s going to be out there wreaking havoc… And when you turned it on, 27 wasn’t always doing that… It wasn’t like he didn’t do anything … he did get after (the quarterback). He was disruptive against the run. He did chase. He did hustle. But you didn’t see what we thought we would see. We didn’t get it on a week-to-week basis, and when that happens, you wonder, “Am I too low, am I too high or I should just say I don’t understand this player at all?”
The Bengals have notoriously struggled to develop players of late (though Amarius Mims came into his own in the second half of 2024). In particular, Dax Hill is in the final year of his rookie contract without having tapped fully into his potential, and Myles Murphy has underwhelmed in his first two years as a pass rusher, though his fate is far from sealed.
In the new Al Golden regime, however, that could change, especially with the new defensive coordinator stressing that developing prospects will be one of his highest priorities. While Pearce’s potential is astronomical, the Bengals’ inability to develop players on defense in recent years makes him much more risky than safe, especially with his game still needing to be refined.
I’m fully aware that this article could end up on a Freezing Cold Takes post years down the line (and to play Devil’s Advocate against myself, I’m wearing a coat as I write this). There is an extremely real possibility that Pearce lives up to the hype and becomes absolute menace of a pass-rusher for years to come. There’s also the possibility that a team sees Pearce’s sky-high athletic ability and swoops him up before the Bengals can pick, rendering this entire piece null and void. The snippets of highlight reels on tape are absolutely electric, and Pearce shows serious potential.
However, in a draft that is an absolute embarrassment of riches in terms of defensive linemen, to go with the Bengals’ struggles to navigate development of players with character concerns, there are many safer choices that Cincinnati can go with, and I’ll advocate heading in that direction, even if it means passing on an elite talent.
Up Next