How the Bengals dedicated their offseason to fixing the defense

It was 108 days ago that Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin sat at the podium in the news conference room at Paycor Stadium and spoke of his frustration that his team wasn’t playing in the playoffs.

“Incredibly frustrating … had we just won our share of those (close games), not more than our share, we’d be talking about at least having opportunities in the playoffs, which is where we feel we should be,” Tobin said on Jan. 9. “I know we haven’t shown that. I’m not asking anyone else to feel that way. Within this building, we know we should be there.”Tobin took blame, as did head coach Zac Taylor. But as the person in charge of putting Cincinnati’s roster together, he was the person Bengals fans wanted to hear from most this offseason.

The Bengals have now made Tobin available to reporters three times since the season ended – a significant change from how the franchise has previously handled Tobin’s availability. Prior to this year, Tobin was never made available in a press conference setting immediately following the season or after the NFL draft.

A lot has changed since Tobin last spoke to reporters, and on April 27 after the conclusion of free agency and the draft, Cincinnati’s de facto general manager provided an update on several topics.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Tobin’s post-draft news conference:

Newly signed Cincinnati Bengals defense tackle Dexter Lawrence speaks in a press conference for the first time since joining the team at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Monday, April 20, 2026.

Bengals felt Dexter Lawrence was a player the franchise ‘needed’

For the first time in franchise history, the Bengals traded away their first-round pick for an established veteran player.

Cincinnati made one of the most shocking trades of the year when they acquired three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Lawrence from the New York Giants on April 18. In order to get Lawrence, the Bengals gave New York their first-round pick (No. 10 overall) and that’s how the deal got done.

"It felt good to get Big Dex in here,” Tobin said. “He's a guy we've had high opinion of since he was at Clemson. He's a real guy, and these things don't happen very often. It's not very often you get a chance to acquire an All-Pro for a price that you think is acceptable. It was a process getting that done, but it worked out for both sides. He was someone we felt we needed. He's going to elevate the people next to him and the people behind him and that's good. We've got a lot of other guys there that are going to elevate those people as well."

The Bengals are looking to improve in every area on defense and Lawrence can help at every level. He’s one of the best at his position and there’s not many players who can do what he can on the field.

"His individual traits are rare,” Tobin said. “He's rare as a person, his desire and ethic. He's very experienced. He knows techniques. He anticipates what they're going to run against him. He's hard to move. He can invert the pocket. He can get on edges, he's athletic, he's long, he can disrupt the passer in a lot of different ways, and he can take on so others can do that as well. And so guys like Dexter there, there's not very many of them around the league, and that was one of the reasons that we said this opportunity is worth doing."

Cincinnati signed defensive end Boye Mafe in free agency.

Fixing the pass rush was the Bengals’ top priority

The No. 1 priority for the Bengals this offseason was to revamp the defensive line room.

They allocated several resources to doing so after the departures of Trey Hendrickson and Joseph Ossai. Cincinnati signed defensive end Boye Mafe and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen in free agency.

Then, the Bengals doubled down on the position in April when they traded for Lawrence and used their first pick in this year’s draft (in the second round) on defensive end Cashius Howell.

That’s four new pieces added to Cincinnati’s defensive line room with pass rushing as their main strength.Tobin famously said “pass rush is king” during his Jan. 8 news conference. His words were quickly backed up by his actions in orchestrating an offseason dedicated to fixing the pass rush.“It’s still king,” Tobin said. “You want to be able to impact the other team’s quarterback. You have to stop the run to get to those situations.”

The Bengals want their pass rush to come at teams in waves. In order to do so, depth is necessary and they now have it.

“We feel like we've got two waves of guys that we can bring in,” he said. “And if you look at what Seattle did this year and what a lot of championship teams have done, they've had those waves of guys, and we feel like we're establishing that.”

The Bengals added safety Bryan Cook in free agency. The former UC Bearcat was a player the team targeted early.

Bengals wanted to add players to locker room with championship-caliber pedigree

In addition to Mafe, the Bengals added safety Bryan Cook in free agency. The former University of Cincinnati Bearcat was a player the team targeted early.

With Mafe and Cook, Cincinnati is getting two players entering the prime of their career who come from Super Bowl winning teams. This was a trait the Bengals were looking to add to their locker room, according to Tobin.

“Championship caliber players who have played in big games that understand how to play,” Tobin said of Mafe and Cook. “The individual traits fit what we want to do, the vision of our coaching staff and fit the vision of what we have on the team already. They've had a lot of success, and they've got championship rings, and they understand what it looks like.

Mafe is coming to the Bengals straight off a Super Bowl run as he most recently played for the Seattle Seahawks and won a Lombardi Trophy in February. Cook comes to Cincinnati after four years with the Kansas City Chiefs. During Cook’s time, he played in the AFC Championship Game three times and made three Super Bowl appearances, winning it twice (2023-24).

Bengals want to have one of the most dominant defensive units in the NFL

Tobin went out of his way to mention that the Bengals were among the league’s top spenders this offseason.

After three years of missing the playoffs, in large part due to the play on the defensive side of the ball, the Bengals knew they needed to add impact players this offseason. Tobin believes Cincinnati’s roster is “pretty complete” and there aren’t many holes to fill.

So, now that the player-acquisition phase of the offseason is complete, how does Tobin see his defense?"I'm hopeful that it becomes one of the dominant defenses in the NFL,” Tobin said. “We've got a lot of guys who understand what a dominant defense looks like because they've played in them over the years, so I'm very hopeful that it comes together in a way that will elevate us to where we want to go."

The Bengals finished No. 30 in points allowed per game (28.9) in the 2025 season. If the unit is improved next season, there’s no reason to believe that Cincinnati can’t be a contender once again.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How the Bengals dedicated their offseason to fixing the defense