Duke Tobin – Page 4 – Syndication Server

WATCH: Bengals are considering options other than Joe Burrow at No. 1

The Bengals are being thorough as they prepare for the 2020 draft.

Cincinnati’s opportunity with the first overall selection is not one that the organization is decisive about yet.

Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin explained to reporters this week that the team is evaluating options outside of just Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion quarterback Joe Burrow.

The Bengals’ own website explained Wednesday that the team is looking at other QBs and Sports Illustrated Thursday detailed how that evaluation process is, at this point, still a competition.

According to Tobin via SI, the Bengals are looking at Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Oregon’s Justin Herbert and Ohio State defensive end Chase Young.

Tobin, though, was clear that a quarterback is a priority.

“We know what Joe is on tape; we know what Tua is on tape; we know what Justin is on tape,” Tobin told SI. “Our role right now is to try to find out what we don’t know.”

From details regarding leadership style to how a QB adjusts to changing circumstances and what his personality is like on and off the field, the Bengals say they are considering everything about each player ahead of making the first pick.

Report: Bengals will make Burrow compete to be first overall draft pick, along with 3 other QBs

The Bengals are being thorough as they prepare for the 2020 draft.

Report: Bengals will make Burrow compete to be first overall draft pick, along with 3 other QBs (Ben

The Bengals are being thorough as they prepare for the 2020 draft.

Duke Tobin explains why Bengals didn’t host fire sale at trade deadline

The Bengals didn’t want to trade talents like A.J. Green and Geno Atkins.

The Cincinnati Bengals have used the 2020 Senior Bowl to be quite open with fans as Zac Taylor and Co. head into Year 2 with the first pick in the draft.

And one of those topics of discussion predictably centered on how the team behaved from a personnel standpoint in the middle of the season.

Written another way, outside observers wondered why the Bengals didn’t sell off some talent at the trade deadline.

Here’s the answer straight from Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin, courtesy of Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

“We are not trying to get better by losing our best players. In our opinion, that’s not the path forward. Lose your best players, how do you get better by doing that? We have guys who clearly some teams were interested in. Well guess what? We are interested in having them, too. They are good players. We weren’t good enough as a football team. Now if we’re going to lose players, how does that improve us? I don’t think any of those (veterans) are done. We think all those guys have life in their NFL career and are going to be a part of our turnaround as we go.”

It’s a blunt enough answer. While Tobin has also commented in Mobile about how they “earned” the top overall pick, it appears the front office was reluctant to earn more assets in the way of draft picks by trading away veteran talent.

Fair enough, though outsiders might disagree with the approach. Veterans such as A.J. Green and Tyler Eifert could have potentially fetched nice prices on the trade market — now they could leave for no immediate return as free agents. And uncomfortable as it might sounds, wiggling out of bigish contracts like those belonging to aging veterans such as Geno Atkins, Dre Kirkpatrick and even Andy Dalton could’ve made some sense.

But the Bengals clearly see it differently, something they indicated while remaining in a holding pattern despite the worst start in franchise history.

The idea continues to be retaining their own and hoping it leads to contention instead of stockpiling assets, though whether even that works will hinge on whether the front office can now keep key free agents like Green aboard this offseason.

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Bengals sound like they’ll do right by Andy Dalton on his way out the door

The Bengals plan on taking care of Andy Dalton if he’s on his way out the door.

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Though the relationship between the Cincinnati Bengals and Andy Dalton has clearly run its course, that doesn’t mean things will end on a sour note.

Given the nature of the relationship and Dalton’s impeccable work in the greater Cincinnati area, any potential split was always going to be an amicable one handled with respect.

That’s something Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin confirmed to Ian Rapoport on his RapSheet + Friends podcast at the Senior Bowl:

“I’ve talked to Andy individually…we haven’t made any decisions there…I wish I could give him a decision there… I can tell you one thing, what Andy Dalton’s done for the Cincinnati Bengals is not something that we’re going to forget and we are not just going to willy-nilly make something happen with him that a. he is uncomfortable with and b. we’re uncomfortable with…”

Dalton made it clear he still wants to be a starter in the league, which is why he and his agent wanted to look around at the trade deadline once Zac Taylor announced the Bengals were benching him in favor of rookie Ryan Finley.

Fast forward to the offseason and, barring something unexpected, Dalton will play elsewhere by next season. This interview merely hints at the how of things — the Bengals won’t likely trade Dalton into a bad situation.

Whether Dalton leaves the Bengals via trade or outright release remains to be seen, but it’s clear the Bengals want to do right by a guy that has meant so much to the team and city.

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Duke Tobin again stresses anything is on the table with No. 1 pick

The Bengals are open to anything with the 2020 NFL draft’s first pick.

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Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin continues to make the media rounds at the 2020 Senior Bowl.

The biggest topic is — of course — the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL draft and LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.

After shooting down rumors the Bengals wouldn’t trade the No. 1 pick, Tobin elaborated more in a new interview with Ian Rapoport on his RapSheet + Friends podcast.

“Right now, I would be open to leaving everything on the table because we haven’t decided yet. … (We’re) figuring out how to best use the capital we’ve ‘earned.’ ”

“Earned” is a funny way of putting it but the point stands — it’s entirely too early for the Bengals to finalize what they want to do in the draft. Tobin went on to stress he’s simply not comfortable eliminating options this early in the process.

While there is a semblance of “what else would Tobin say?” here, this is also simply the truth in mid-January. Media will ask about the eventual outcome and Tobin will answer truthfully.

But this response also signals to teams that the phone lines will remain open throughout the process until told otherwise. And for a prospect like Burrow, the trade return would be historic.

In other words, the Bengals would be foolish not to listen. That’s part of the long process here, so they will.

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Duke Tobin has interesting response to report Bengals won’t trade No. 1 pick

Duke Tobin dished on the No. 1 pick and trading it.

Over the weekend and ahead of the 2020 Senior Bowl, a report broke suggesting the Cincinnati Bengals won’t trade the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL draft.

Just don’t tell Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin.

Tobin, speaking with the team’s site in Mobile, kept it short and sweet when asked about the report suggesting his team has decided to hang on to the pick: “That’s news to me.”

Tobin elaborated a bit more, noting things are too early in the process to make such claims.

“I don’t know that any decision has been made for what we’re going to do in April. We’re early in the process,” Tobin said. “We certainly haven’t had any meetings to determine that at this point. Those will be meetings we’ll have as we go through the process.”

The report the Bengals won’t trade the first overall pick always seemed premature — Cincinnati should at least listen to offers for the pick that could be Joe Burrow.

While this is little more than the Bengals suggesting nothing has been outright decided yet, it sure doesn’t hurt that this sort of statement works in a few ways. It can be construed as the team remains open to anything, which could indeed mean other teams pick up the phone about a trade.

As always, a report about what the Bengals might do months later was too early, especially in an NFL landscape where things change by the hour.

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