Why Bengals' personnel additions are more notable than typical June transactions

New York Times

2 days ago

Shuffling of personnel staff, adding of supplemental scouts and assistants doesn't typically resonate as news, even in the empty June news cycles.
The Bengals aren't the typical organization.
So, when the club made official the additions of scouts Josh Hinch and Tyler Ramsey, along with scouting research analyst Trey LaBounty on Monday, it left a larger impression than the typical transaction.
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The size of the Bengals' scouting staff has been a criticism of the organization for decades. So, when the team enters this season netting two extra assistants following scout Christian Sarkisian leaving to become general manager at Northwestern, it's notable.
It also comes four months removed from the director of player personnel Duke Tobin saying this about his scouting group: 'If I thought we were missing something, I would definitely add more.'
The Bengals still face a cavernous gap with the rest of the league, and specifically the AFC North. That's as easy to find as a link on the team directory page.
There are differences in how teams categorize and list their scouting and analytics staffers, but they generally categorize them into research and strategy and player personnel. Combining those groups, here are the general numbers of employees in those divisions.
• Ravens: 36
• Browns: 35
• Steelers: 27
• Bengals: 9
The Browns, known for their heavy lean into analytics, list 15 in research and strategy alone, plus another 20 in player personnel. The Bengals only list employees in alphabetical order and don't classify them by division.
Staffers don't necessarily equate to results, of course. Plus, the Bengals utilize their coaching staff in the scouting process as much, if not more, than any organization in the NFL. Tobin's idea is that the coaches are responsible for developing the draft picks, and they want everyone pulling in the same direction with conviction once the player enters the building. Head coach Zac Taylor has repeatedly spoken out about his support for the Bengals' process, lending weight to the coaching staff's opinions in the evaluation period.
Tobin has provided a version of the same answer to the repeated question about the smallest scouting staff in the NFL for decades.
'It's never been and never will be about how many voices you have or how many opinions,' Tobin said before Super Bowl LVI in 2022. 'It's about having the right opinions and trusting in the guys you have entrusted to come up with the right opinions.'
Validation of the philosophy will always be easier to find when the wins stack up, specifically in January. Tobin's team put together multiple productive free agent and draft classes in advance of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, leading to back-to-back AFC North titles, an AFC championship and an appearance in the AFC Championship Game that snapped a franchise record 10-game win streak.
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The answers are harder to validate coming off missing the playoffs in back-to-back years, as he did at the combine in Indianapolis.
'Hugely disappointing,' Tobin said with the first two words regarding last season while addressing the gathered media in February.
Inevitably, that day, the question came up again regarding the size of his scouting staff and if he was looking to add to the staff.
'Adding more just to satisfy a league quota isn't something I would do,' Tobin said. 'If I thought we were missing some area and weren't getting coverage where I need or where I wanted, or we needed a capacity we don't currently have, then certainly I would look at it. Right now, I think the group is operating very effectively and cohesively. I value their opinions. I know what I am getting out of their opinions.
'When you add new people, it takes a while to know what you are getting out of those opinions. So those opinions don't hold the weight until they have been here a while. There are people around the league I know, like and trust. Am I prepared if something happens? Yeah, I'm always prepared if something happens. But the need right now isn't there.'
What happened over the ensuing four months came in waves and made an impact. Major contract negotiations with Tee Higgins, Ja'Marr Chase and (still) Trey Hendrickson ran parallel with a free agency week in which the Bengals stayed surprisingly quiet. Then came a draft where the club desperately needed to find starters in the first three rounds, all while negotiations over the expiring stadium lease were ongoing at the highest levels.
Then Sarkisian moved on to Northwestern. His departure allowed an opportunity to reevaluate how the department operates.
Tobin's right-hand men, Steven Radicevic (director of pro scouting), Mike Potts (director of college scouting) and Trey Brown (senior personnel executive) all remain, along with scout Andrew Johnson.
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The addition of the 39-year-old Hinch, 35-year-old Ramsey and LaBounty, a product of Stanford (2021) and Miami University (2023), makes for a plus-two trade out. They still boast half the personnel staff as every other team in the league, but it marks the first addition to the group since Brown was added in 2021.
Hinch and Ramsey offer a more traditional background in line with the rest of the department. Hinch spent the last four seasons with the Patriots, having broken into the NFL in 2015 with Tampa Bay. Ramsey has 16 years of scouting experience, mostly with Seattle and Carolina.
The most interesting addition is LaBounty, who will bring an analytics element to player evaluation. Analytics chief Sam Francis has led the charge on the data side since his hiring in 2019, when he worked with current offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher to build the Bengals' analytics and game management from scratch.
With most of his attention focused on the field during the season, LaBounty's ability to focus on the college evaluation side through a data lens brings a new angle to the draft process from start to finish, rather than Francis jumping in late to the game.
'If it pops up tomorrow that we need X and don't have the coverage for it, and I need somebody with a different skill set, we will go out and get them,' Tobin also said in February.
These moves suggest there was an obvious need for a different skill set and willingness to move off a previous stance.
Nobody will confuse the Bengals with the Browns, Ravens, or any other personnel department in football at this point, but with all the demands placed on executives, this at least serves as recognition that the time had come for an incremental move in a more modern direction.
(Photo of Duke Tobin: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)