When Bengals owner Mike Brown announced that director of player personnel Duke Tobin and coach Zac Taylor will return in 2026, some questioned whether the Bengals have the right people in place to turn things around. Tobin has no doubts.
“If your question is, ‘Do I have confidence in myself?’ I do. But most importantly, I have confidence in the people and in the processes that we have here. It is not up to me to determine whether I am here or not,” Tobin said, via the Associated Press.
So if the people are staying the same, what needs to change?
“Our record,” Tobin answered. “We need to win games that we should win, instead of finding ways to lose games that we should win.”
The Bengals lost five games by six points or less, and Tobin said winning the close games would have made all the difference in their 6-11 season.
“You have to find ways to close games, and that has been our number one problem,” Tobin said. “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 [on turnovers], and we lose the game. We have to get to that point where that focus, strain and finish is in our DNA. Our players have to understand that.”
With the same people staying in place in 2026, the biggest question facing the Bengals will be whether they can keep Joe Burrow healthy. In 2025 they went 5-3 in games Burrow Started, 1-5 in games Joe Flacco started and 0-3 in games Jake Browning started. If Burrow had stayed healthy for 17 games, the Bengals might still be playing, and Tobin wouldn’t be facing questions about whether he deserves to keep his job.
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