Bengals’ personnel man talks NFL Draft, McCarron and kickers

MOBILE, Alabama – The Cincinnati Bengals front office and coaching staff made their annual trek to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama as part of the pre-draft evaluation process. After compensatory picks are awarded, the Bengals might find themselves with 11 selections at the NFL Draft on April 27-29 in Philadelphia, beginning with the No. 9 pick following a disappointing 6-9-1 regular season.

While there, The Enquirer caught up with Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin for a question-and-answer session, including an early look at his expectations for the top of the draft class, the development of backup quarterback AJ McCarron, having so many potential selections and how 2017 might be a big year for the last three first-round picks.

1. Adam Jones was arrested on Jan. 3 and the club released an apology after a video was released on Jan. 23, but is there any update on Jones’ status with the club?

Duke Tobin: I’m not going to put out a statement for obvious reasons.

2. Before you close the book on 2016 and flip forward to the new season, any personnel-side takeaways on a year that began with very high expectations but yet finished with a disappointing end result?

DT: We’re disappointed in the personnel world as much as the coaches are disappointed and the players are disappointed. It’s hard to stay in the playoff chase year after year after year. This was a down year for us.



We didn’t win the close games. We didn’t make plays in any of the three phases to win enough games and be able to put us over the hump. We’re going to have to find a way to do that. We’re going to have to find a way to win in critical junctures of the game again. That had been a strength of ours in years past and we’ll have to get back to that.



There will be changes. There always are. We’ve got a lot of draft choices. We’re going to get to 90 (players), we’re going to get to the best 90 that we can find and then we’re going to let that 90 compete to see who the 53 are going to be. Whether they’re young, whether they’re veterans, we’re going to keep the best 53. From our standpoint, we’re always looking to add to the group and this year will be no different. There might be a little more addition to the group from the outside, from the college game.



But yeah, we were disappointed in the results. I think our players were. I think we’ll bounce back. I think we have a great leadership core and certainly a talented staff. I don’t worry about us being back. While it was a disappointment we’re still excited for what this year holds.

3. After scouting this draft class throughout the year, how do you view this group of prospects you’ll see in the top 10?

DT: Obviously when you have a down year you get higher picks and when you have higher picks they mean a lot to you. We want to make sure that that pick counts, that we take a guy that’s going to be a long-time player for us. I don’t think you get the super rare guy at nine. I don’t think any draft is that deep to where there is 10 super rare-type, A.J. Green-type guys. It’s a level down from that.



You get kind of the first pick of the very good players but the rare guys are typically gone by that time. We’ll have to make the right pick for us. He’ll have to fit what we want to do, whether it’s on offense or defense, and he’ll have to be the type of guy that fits into our team. But it’s an important pick and obviously the higher you pick the more that’s on the line. Ideally we want to pick a guy that can come in and contribute to us immediately. We’ll be looking at all those things.



It’s still really early in the process to know what the universe of guy will be. It seems like at every turn it winnows down a little bit, whether it be the combine, whether it be the interview process or the workout process or the medical process or whatever. It winnows down a little bit and we’ll have a pretty clear picture of the universe in a month or two for sure.

4.It’s common to hear the statement that you shouldn’t evaluate a draft class until a few years after. Starting with the class of 2013, are you pleased as a whole, do you think some of these guys have potential yet?



DT: All of our younger players in the middle ages of their career have untapped potential and they could still come on for us, the ones that are around. Obviously when you draft a guy, wherever you draft him, you envision him being with you and contributing. And if not all draft choices are with you there is some regret about that but we feel like we’ve done a solid job adding to the team.



But we don’t spend a lot of time looking backwards at that. We spend most of our effort and energy looking forward to this draft class. The next draft class is always the most important. I don’t really have a lot to offer in a thorough review of different draft classes. I think you take guys, you do your best to develop them, give them opportunity and see how they do. And at the end of their contract you hope they produced enough to come back to you. Some of them produce too much and get a lot of teams offering them. I think we’ve had some of that. The one thing about re-signing your players is they’ve got to be worth re-signing and we’ve had an abundance of guys we’ve felt are worth re-signing and I think that continues. That’s always a good sign for a draft class, is when they get to a second contract if you want them back and other teams want them. That’s been the case as of the recent history and we want to continue that trend. Obviously we’d like everybody to come back but if they get big opportunities elsewhere that’s the nature of the NFL and we wish them well.

5.How important of a year is this for 2014 first-round pick Darqueze Dennard, 2015 first-round pick Cedric Ogbuehi and even last year’s first rounder, William Jackson III? They’ve had some issues over their short careers to date, whether it be injury or effectiveness.



DT: It’s hard when they’re not the ones out there doing it for you. We’ve got real high hopes for all those guys. We think they’re going to be big pieces for what we do this year. We want them to stay healthy. It’s hard not to get William some work this year, so he kind of comes into this year as still a rookie, and so he’s going to have to overcome some of the things that rookies do. I think he’ll do that. But he’s a guy we’re certainly excited about.



Darqueze I think is starting to grow his role and if he can stay healthy and up and going I think you’ll see a big role increase for him.



We’ve got a lot of regard for Cedric and his ability that he has. I think he’s made of the right stuff to bounce back, get his confidence back and have a really productive career for us. As you saw, he’s rare in a lot of ways and I think it’s just a matter of getting on the field and getting comfortable in the role that he ends up in, wherever that is. With (Jake) Fisher, too.



I think those guys, at least in our minds, the arrow is still pointing up and we think those guys can be real contributors for us. I hope this is the year that happens.

6. Along the lines of draft and develop, and hoping guys play well enough to earn second contracts – how do you view the progress of 2014’s fifth-round pick AJ McCarron? (Note: The Bengals do not discuss trades, or speculation surrounding the trading of players.)

DT: AJ’s done a really good job of taking advantage of the opportunities he’s been given. AJ’s a competitor. AJ wants to be a starting quarterback. Those are traits that you want to see in a guy. You don’t want guys that are content with their role if it’s not as big as what it could be. AJ is used to the big stage and when he got on it, he produced. So he’s become a very valuable piece of our team. Even though you don’t see him on the field that much, he’s become an extremely valuable piece of our team. We’re proud of the way he’s handled it. We’re proud of the way that he goes about his work, the support he gives Andy and the rest of the offense I think is underestimated. He is a big piece of what we do and he certainly is very capable. Whenever he’s in the game or whenever we would have to put him in the game we feel comfortable that he can get the job done. That’s a credit to him and the coaches for getting him ready with limited practice.

7. A year ago at this time, you lost scout Greg Seamon to Cleveland, who is now in the running to be the Browns quarterbacks coach. How have you felt you and your staff operated this past year and are there thoughts about adding people to your department?

DT: We’re always looking for opportunities and evaluating the way we do things. I’m really proud of our staff and the way that they work. We put a lot of responsibility on them. We give them free reign to do a lot of things the way they want to do it. They work extremely hard. We’re a little bit different in how we organize it and how we travel during the fall. It’s a little different than a lot of other teams.

We try to maintain the efficiencies by spending less time in airports and hotels and waiting around for practice and then being kicked out of practice. We try to spend our time watching the tape and then we’ll see the guys live in these all-star games or the combine or pro day workouts. I’m proud of our guys. They work hard, they do a phenomenal job. They’ve got a lot of energy, our young guys do. And we’ve got a lot of experience in our personnel department too with my dad (Bill) and Pete (Brown) and Paul (Brown). So there’s kind of a good blend and I’m happy with the way that it’s put together right now. We’re always looking for ways to get better and this year will be the same thing.

8. That staff may get a shot at 11 draft picks this April based on potential compensatory selections. The last time the Bengals had at least 10 was 2013. You also had 10 in 2012. Those two drafts you’ve found contributors from the top down. How exciting is it to have that many?



DT: Extra picks always gets scouts excited because that’s more chance for them to show off what they’ve been doing. Our scouts are happy that we’re going to have a few extra. Where exactly those fall is to be determined a little bit, but we feel good about where we stand in that. It will be important that all those guys are guys who come in and compete and have a role. We want to keep those young guys. We want them to find a role, whether it’s on special teams or on the practice squad developing, but we don’t want to miss on any of those guys. We want them around here and contributing here this year or in the future.

Obviously the higher you take a guy the more you feel about him and we want our high picks to be the ones to come in and contribute right away. But we’re certainly, and always have been, open to the later round picks or even the college free agents being the ones to contribute immediately. When we talk about competition we back it up a little bit by we’re going to play the best guy, we’re going to play the guy that wins the competition and we’re going to keep the best 53. So the more draft picks you have the better chance you have of having a better 53. We’re excited about it.

We’ll have a lot of opportunity and the more that you have the more ability that you have maybe to move if opportunities present themselves too. It provides a little flexibility in your draft strategy as well.

Bonus question: The club just re-signed kicker Randy Bullock and special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons said that while Bullock had done enough to warrant consideration for that, he would also like some competition in camp for him. What did you see in Bullocks’ three games that you wanted to get him under contract and is there something to having more kickers in the mix?



DT: We’ve re-signed Jon Brown who didn’t get a lot of opportunity with us last year because he got hurt right after we signed him out of Louisville. So we’ve got two right now under contract. And we just felt like Randy earned an opportunity to come back and compete.

There’s going to be a competition. I don’t think that’s a secret to anybody. We’re going to evaluate all the rookies. We’re going to continue to evaluate the free agent kickers and if we see opportunities for increased competition we’ll do that. I think Randy’s well aware of that, that this is a competition. He did enough with us to warrant being part of that competition. I know he didn’t finish the way he wanted it in Houston. I don’t put that all on him. I think there was some newness there from our operation that he was a little uncomfortable with and he pushed it right. He felt bad about it. But the other times he got the opportunity he did some good things. So we’re happy to have him. And he showed the ability to kick off, which is an important part too.

I’m looking forward to seeing him compete. But it’s certainly going to be an open competition and the one that wins is the one that wins. We’re open to anybody there at this point.