Cincinnati Bengals GM Duke Tobin ranked No. 17 in NFL
Getty
Cincinnati Bengals GM Duke Tobin ranked No. 17 in NFL
The Cincinnati Bengals‘ front office has always been a bit of a conundrum. Most people know it’s dysfunctional, but it’s tough to tell how much of it is ownership and how much of the team’s issues could be due to the general managers and scouts (the thin scouting department has been discussed ad nauseam over the years).
Patrick Daugherty of NBC Sports took a look at all of the general managers in the NFL recently and ranked them from 1-32. He put Bengals’ director of player personnel Duke Tobin at roughly middle of the pack at No. 17.
“Duke Tobin pushed the metaphorical easy button on Joe Burrow in 2020,” Daugherty writes. “Everything else has been hard. We know sacks can be a quarterback stat, but Burrow has never been protected well. And that’s just on offense. On defense, Tobin’s crew typically leaves it so that Burrow has to play a perfect game to have any chance of victory.”
That’s not a glowing review of Tobin, who acts as the defacto general manager for the Bengals. First, you don’t really get credit for taking Burrow No. 1-overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, because he was the consensus best player and you needed a quarterback. In his last year at LSU, Burrow completed 76.3% of his passes for 5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns(!) and just six interceptions in 15 games. Sitting at the top of the draft, that’s not a difficult decision to make.
Then, Daugherty is taking Tobin to task for not building an offensive line or the entire defensive side of the ball. Those are pretty fair criticisms.
The Hendrickson problem
The Trey Hendrickson situation is complicated and it’s tough to pin that all on Tobin, but Daugherty thinks his fingerprints are on it.
“The Bengals have finished in the top 16 by either points or yards allowed one time during the Burrow era,” Daugherty continues. “Although it’s true teams with elite offenses tend to surrender more enemy production, this was a one-man band in 2024 with Trey Hendrickson. So it’s not good news the linchpin edge rusher is on year two of a trade demand.
“This time, he insists he won’t play under his current contract. With the salary cap and owner Mike Brown’s legendarily spendthrift ways limiting Tobin’s options in free agency, he added either Hendrickson’s future running mate or replacement in Shemar Stewart at No. 17 overall.”
It can be tough to gauge Tobin’s role in the ongoing saga of the Hendrickson contract situation. For all anyone knows, Tobin could have wanted to do a deal before last year (or this year), but didn’t have the financial backing of ownership. At the end of the day, Tobin could have temper tantrums to sign Hendrickson all he likes, but the Brown family has to be willing to cut the checks.
Tobin will need big production from Stewart
The Bengals will need a lot from Stewart in his rookie season whether he’s replacing Hendrickson or joining him in the starting lineup. It doesn’t help that Stewart still isn’t signed and could be behind the eight-ball getting acclimated should he miss all of OTAs.
“Anything short of a DROY-contending season from the rookie will leave Tobin’s roster in a deeply vulnerable position,” Daugherty says of Stewart. “Tobin is in no danger of being fired. That’s not how things work in Cincinnati. But several years in the wilderness, a la the 2012-16 Saints, could be on tap without some seriously surprising 2025 contributions from some of Tobin’s more recent draft picks.”
Again, it might be tough to give Tobin a fair shake considering the decades-long problems with ownership and their spending (or lack thereof) ways.