CINCINNATI — What did you expect?
Duke Tobin took a legal pad the podium Friday and told Bengals fans and season ticket holders that he and the Bengals front office feel their pain. He said tweaks will be made to the way they prepare in the offseason, the way they coach and the way their players train and prepare.
The director of player personnel for the Bengals promised that every avenue will be pursued and every option explored to improve a woefully inadequate defense. He said that Joe Burrow indeed has a voice in the collaboration that is the Bengals way of constructing a roster. Indeed, collaboration was the buzzword of the day.
It was a word used 15 times in a 63-minute press conference that was arranged not so much as an inquisition as it was a performative opportunity for ownership to throw its leading player personnel chief out to the media to make a case for the status quo in terms of who calling the shots inside Paycor Stadium. Tobin prepared all week for this after agreeing to a press conference. This wasn’t as much about answering questions as it was addressing the fan base and getting ownership’s message out there that despite what you see on the field, the Bengals way is still the path to a long-anticipated Super Bowl title.
How did he do? Well, there were no blow-ups. Tobin was genuine, courteous, patient, thorough, pleasant and at times humorous and insightful. But one thing he was not was a martyr. He was not throwing himself on any landmines and admitting the kind of failure in roster building that fans wanted him to acknowledge.
“It goes without saying this season is not what we expect, certainly not what we will accept, and everybody here knows that,” Tobin began. “It was frustrating, it was challenging, it was disappointing for all of us, but more importantly, it was all those things for our fans. We feel that. That weighs on us. It hurts us because we know they have high expectations for us. We embrace those high expectations. Believe me, we have high expectations for this football team as well. We didn’t meet those expectations. The group we put out there did not fulfill those expectations. It motivates us to be better to put a group out there that will make the city proud, that will finish games. We have a lot of work to do this offseason. We are aware of that. We’re motivated for it. We’re excited about it.”
Moreover, what he didn’t offer or provide is any indication or hope for the fanbase that the franchise will take a close, hard look at the way they do business and overhaul their football operations and the way they evaluate personnel.
“It’s all collaborative. Ultimately, this is Mr. Brown’s team,” Tobin said.
So, there you have it. It’s going to be status quo for another season, with the hope that they strike gold in free agency and the draft the way they did in 2020 and 2021, setting the stage for the 2021 and ’22 playoff runs, the only two postseason appearances in the last 10 seasons. That means that the leading seven people in charge of the player personnel department will all return, including Tobin, assistant general managers Trey Brown, Mike Potts, Steven Radicevic, scouting executive Andrew Johnson and scouts Josh Hinch and Tyler Ramsey.
It was clear from Tobin Friday that the Bengals are working under the same family-run football mentality that produced a 6-11 train wreck in 2025. There will be no additions to the scouting department. There will be no change in the way Tobin and head coach Zac Taylor work together. There will be no voices brought in from the outside – you know – voices who may actually have experience in building not only Super Bowl winners but perennial playoff teams, the bare minimum that should be expected with Joe Burrow as the quarterback.
Remember that Burrow line from Jan. 2022, after the Bengals ended their playoff victory drought and beat the Raiders on Germaine Pratt’s interception?
“The fans were very excited but, I try to downplay it and all that because this is how it’s going to be from here on out,” Burrow said. “This is a great win for us. This is the standard, the bare minimum every year going forward.”
Well, that standard has fallen by the wayside in the last three years. The Bengals have failed to provide Burrow with a competent defense the last two seasons. Yes, Burrow missed nine games this year. But the defense was so woefully inadequate that it’s silly to assume the Bengals would have made the playoffs with him. Why? Because Joe Burrow played all 17 games in 2024. The Bengals finished 9-8 and had to win their last five games just to finish above .500. The defense was marginally better, for sure, after the bye. But by then, the season was already circling the drain.
“We feel that. We’re disheartened for them feeling disheartened,” Tobin said Friday in another plea to the fan base. Still, Tobin believes all of this can go back to 2022 if the players just get the losing out of their system at the end of games.
“I watch it every day. I watch our coaching staff teach those. We can go 95% of the game playing the right technique and assignment, it’s just at the critical moments we have these breakdowns and we have to get that out of our DNA,” Tobin said. “Everybody in the building is keenly aware of that.”
Zac Taylor had Duke Tobin’s back on Monday. Tobin repaid the favor Friday, noting how Taylor got Joe Flacco ready for a game in Green Bay just four days after acquiring him in a trade on Oct. 7.
“We have a great relationship. We’re on the same page,” Tobin insisted. “I’ve got nothing but high regard for Zac. Very few people in the world could have done what he did to revamp our offense with a quarterback that walked in two days (before getting ready for Green Bay). Zac is highly intelligent. He wants input, he wants collaboration. He has great ideas. From the first time I met him out in L.A., I’ve been highly, highly impressed with him and I remain that way today. I think we’re fortunate to have him and I look forward to him bouncing back. This hurts his soul just like it hurts my soul. This is not what we are about. He’s in lockstep with me on that.”
There was a sense of regret and sympathy directed toward the fan base Friday by Tobin. But there was no humility or apology for a family-run operation is a football failure because – according to Tobin – this is the same personnel group that built AFC North and AFC championship rosters in 2021 and ’22.
“We have a football team that has some challenges that we’ve got to solve,” Tobin said. “Beyond that, we have a football team that has a lot of positives to build on and a lot of things we’re proud of and a lot of reasons for optimism. Those are things that we’re excited about. We just have to, this offseason, it’s all going to be about the who’s doing it, the what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it. That’s the focus. I really believe in the group that we have here. Why do I believe in them? Because they have shown that they can do it. They’re a collaborative group; they’re a smart group. They’ve been there before. We have excellent coaches in my opinion. They’re good teachers. Our players respect them. We have a team that, despite the fact that we were out of it, was still enjoying being around each other; still working hard, and to the very end of this season, still improving. That makes me feel good, it really does. I’m proud of that.”
So what led to the disaster of a season? Well, in the eyes of Tobin, the inability to finish games, specifically 12 one-score losses over the last two seasons.
“It irritates me. It really irritates me. You have to find ways to close games, and that has been our number one problem, is when it comes time to close the game, we haven’t closed it,” Tobin said. “How do you get over that hump? When we take the field against any team in this league, we can win, and that team we’re playing knows it. We don’t go out there and get pummeled. We are in it and a lot of times (we) should win it and then don’t. I think that last game against Cleveland is just a microcosm of what we’ve had. The defense goes out there and really pitches one of the finest games you could have, and instead the offense gives 14 points up, and we lose the game. There has to be some complementary football in there, but it’s very frustrating that we’ve lost so many close games. Incredibly frustrating. Had we just won our share of those, not more than our share, we’d be talking about at least having opportunities in the playoffs, which is where we feel we should be. I know we haven’t shown that, and I’m not asking anybody else to feel that way, but within this building, we know we should be there.”
Does it fall on coaching staff?
“It falls at all of our feet. My feet. Our players’ feet. We put a lot of work into getting the technique taught,” Tobin told me. “Then the technique isn’t implemented on the last play of the Chicago game, and you end up where you end up. There’s a focus, a strain, and a finish that we have to instill. Winning is not easy. We have to get to that point where that focus, strain, and finish is in our DNA. Our players have to understand that. On this snap, I’m playing the right technique. I’m not doing my own thing. We just had a mistake, one in 11 or two of 11, that has catastrophic results for our win-loss record. It’s not an excuse; it’s the reality of what’s happened. Can we get better? Yes. Do I have a solution? It’s every part of our team. It happens on special teams from time to time. It happens on offense against Cleveland. It happened on defense against Chicago. Is it frustrating? That’s why I opened with it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for our fans. It’s frustrating for us. I hate that it’s frustrating for our fans. We have to get over that. Every person in our locker room, on our coaching level, and in our front office has to understand that when it comes time to win a game, you have to believe, strain, and finish. It’s been our biggest problem. It’s very irritating.
“I’m proud of the motivation our coaches provided. I’m proud of the camaraderie that our team has within it to do that. I saw a lot of positives even though there was very little to play for. That does make me feel better. I do believe in the people that we have here. I’ve been here a long time. I don’t take this job lightly. I don’t take it for granted. It’s the only job I’ve wanted. It’s what I’ve chosen to do with my life. This team is part of my fabric. I wake up with a singular focus of how to make this team better. It’s what I do. It’s a part of who I am in this city that is my home and it hurts when we’re not representing the city the way that we need to. I think we’re capable of it, but we’ve got to find the solutions to win and produce in the critical moments of games. The last two seasons have been derailed by critical moment execution errors. We have to find the group of 11 to put out there that will execute in the critical moments and I believe that we’ll do that.
I’m confident. I think there are great days ahead for our football team. There is a lot of work to do. We’re motivated to do it. We’re excited to be here to do it. I’m excited to be here. I don’t take this for granted. I work for a fantastic football team in a wonderful city that’s my home. I’m humbled by that, I really am. We have areas of concern; we have reasons for optimism.”
They’re just words for now. Tobin is right about one thing for sure – he and his small staff have a ton of work in front of them to rebuild the defense, spend money on the right players in free agency and draft better to make sure Joe Burrow and the fan base aren’t once again questioning why they put themselves through this again.
