The Bengals may have had a busy offseason, but don’t expect the front office to keep shopping hard as training camp rolls on.
Director of player personnel Duke Tobin made that clear Monday at the Mock Turtle Soup Luncheon, where he said Cincinnati feels good about the roster it has and is not planning a flurry of outside fixes.
“I feel good about our team and where it is at,” Tobin said. “I’m hoping not to have to do a bunch of replacements.
That’s not the plan. I can’t predict injuries and needs that arise.
We are always looking to improve our team, whether it’s the 90th man, the 84th man, or the 26th man. They are all different price points, but we are always looking to improve our team.
"If there is a guy that is out there that we think is a little better than somebody who is not getting it done for us, we will go ahead and do it. With the restrictions we have in place … there are financial restrictions in this league.
That is why there is a salary cap. They exist this year, next year; you have to be cognizant of all of it.”
That stance matters because the obvious question hanging over the roster is linebacker. On paper, it remains the clearest weak spot, even with the Bengals sitting on $16.72 million in salary cap space, which ranks 16th in the NFL. Still, the team could also choose to use a chunk of that space on a contract extension rather than another outside addition.
For now, the spotlight is on the younger linebackers, Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter, as the pads come on and the evaluation gets real over the next few weeks. If they don’t take to the job quickly, names like Bobby Okereke and Bobby Wagner are already out there in free agency as possible answers.
There’s also some room to keep an eye on backup offensive tackle, though Cincinnati appears comfortable with Cody Ford handling either side if needed. That gives the Bengals flexibility without forcing a move.
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said the picture at linebacker should become much clearer soon.
“That’s a question we will have a lot better answer to in a month,” Pitcher said to reporters. “The good news is we have a lot of opportunity for guys to go show what they can do.”
That was the theme of Monday overall: a roster that feels settled, at least for now. Compared with training camp openers in past years, this one carried a lot less tension and a lot more calm.
"We've got what we need," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said about his eighth Bengals team. "With everybody upstairs and ownership and personnel doing an unbelievable job, trying to provide us with the resources to go in. It's on the players and the coaches to go get it done.
"And there's a genuine excitement in the community. I'm in Cincinnati.
I'm out and about. The people that I run into, whether I know them or don't, you can feel the genuine excitement for the season."
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