'We Believe We Can Outscore Anybody' – Bengals' Duke Tobin Discusses Offensive/Defensive Imbalance as Draft Nears

CINCINNATI – While the 2024 season would suggest otherwise, Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin rejected the notion that too much of how the team is constructed is centered around the offense.

“I feel as strongly about the defense as I feel about the offense as far as necessity,” Tobin said Monday during his annual pre-draft news conference.

“It has to work together,” he added. “You're always gonna be a little heavier on one side of the ball or the other depending on how you're paying your team. There can be an imbalance based on that. But you still have to have to a complementary team.”

There was nothing complimentary – or complimentary for that matter – about the Bengals defense last year as the team lost three games in which it scored 30+ points as the defense ranked near the bottom of the league in points and yards allowed.

Those failures ended up squandering historic, MVP-caliber performances by quarterback Joe Burrow and Triple Crown wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, resulting in the Bengals missing the playoffs and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo losing his job.

After giving massive extensions to Chase (four years, $161 million) and wide receiver Tee Higgins (four years, $115 million), the Bengals have 60.5 percent of their 2025 salary cap invested in the offense and 40.5 percent on defense.

“We believe we can outscore anybody,” Tobin said. “That's just our mindset. That's who we are. That's what we've always been about. But you always have to take care of the other side of the ball.

“Defense always has been important to me, even though I'm an offensive guy at heart and I've always been an offensive guy at heart,” he added.

Given the elite production from the offense and the massive costs invested in keeping the top pieces together – add a three-year, $25.5 million extension for tight end Mike Gesicki to the mix – the Bengals look as though they are just trying to get raise the level of the defense to somewhere in the middle of the pack under new coordinator Al Golden.

But head coach Zac Taylor said that’s not where he is setting the bar.

His expectation?

“To have a championship defense,” Taylor said. “Maybe we have our finances dedicated a little heavier on offense because some of the big-ticket items we have over there, but certainly we want to win a championship, and you got to have a championship level defense to do that.

“We have a lot of ingredients (on defense) that help us go that direction, and you still have the draft to help yourself finalize that,” Taylor added.

All signs point to a defense-heavy draft for the Bengals, but there are needs on the interior of the offensive line and at running back.

And the team only has six picks, though Tobin said they are looking to acquire more.

“A lot of people believe defense wins championships, and maybe that's true,” Tobin said. “And if we get a little better over there, maybe we will.”

Asked if he counts himself among those who believe defense wins championships, Tobin said:

“I believe that our football team can win a championship. Absolutely. And I believe that’s a belief others believe as well because I talk to enough “others” around the league. I’m proud of our football team, and I want the rest of the city and the rest of league to be proud of it because it’s a unique group of guys. It really is. And we will add pieces that will elevate it. And defensively we have to elevate ourselves.”