As the Bengals have often proven, stability doesn’t only come in the form of success. Sometimes bad teams keep doing the same thing over and over, too. That’s what the Bengals plan to do this offseason, according to director of player personnel Duke Tobin.
At least that was the takeaway from longtime Bengals beat writer Paul Dehner Jr., who sat in on Tobin’s year-end press conference. When asked in light of Joe Burrow’s comments what needs to change, Tobin didn’t offer much. Short of saying that the Bengals’ record needs to change, it sounds as though little else will.
“If anybody came into this news conference thinking Tobin was going to offer an admission of philosophical errors or a drastic rethinking of the entire process, they left feeling empty”, Dehner wrote about the Bengals’ top personnel man.
Dehner has gone in circles over the years with Tobin about the Bengals having the smallest scouting department in the NFL. Tobin indicated that won’t change. We already know that they aren’t moving on from HC Zac Tayor despite missing the playoffs again with a horrendous defense. They are even retaining Al Golden, who presided over that horrendous defense.
“The scouting department will stay the same. The coaching staff will stay the same. The process of player acquisition will stay the same”, Dehner wrote of the Bengals’ plans rolling into 2026. “There were no expressions of regret over numerous contentious contract negotiations or a desire to be more aggressive in early extensions to avoid drama, distraction and inflation”.
It is, of course, possible to stay the course and find success. The Steelers have followed that practice for more than half a century and have six Super Bowl trophies for it. Of course, they have rarely struggled as much as the Bengals have.
One of the common themes for the Bengals in recent years has been publicly contentious contract negotiations. Owner Mike Brown doesn’t seem care much for optics, routinely sticking to his guns. As often as not, he ultimately gets his way, or some version of his way. But usually, nobody is better off for it.
The big concern is the fact that the Bengals have already played an entire season with Joe Burrow and barely eked out a winning season, going 9-8 in 2024. If they can be at full strength and still fall short, then what? The defense has obviously not been good enough.
Even while Burrow was injured this season, the Bengals proved the offense could still put up points. But they haven’t been hitting on their draft picks the way they were 10-15 years ago. Believe it or not, there was a time before Burrow that the Bengals actually looked relevant for a bit. They never won a playoff game, granted, but they looked like a complete team at least.
