The Cincinnati Bengals are in offseason mode and are busy building a roster they hope can contend for a Super Bowl in 2026 to prove ‘21 and ‘22 were the standard, and that the last three seasons were just bad outliers.
The team that will be observing the college players at the East-West Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl will have a few new faces who were hired last spring.
“More efficient and more eyes on more players,” is what assistant GM Mike Potts said, per Geoff Hobson. “Multiple looks at more players on both the college and pro side, and that’s through seeing them in person on visits and watching them on tape as well.”
The new additions to the department, added last spring, are veteran scouts Josh Hinch and Tyler Ramsey, as well as scouting research analyst Trey LaBounty.
While Hinch and Ramsey will act as traditional scouts, LaBounty will try to bring the league’s smallest scouting department into the 21st century by using technology to help them be more efficient.
“Guys who are maybe more under the radar that we haven’t got as much of a look at,” LaBounty said. “Guys who got flagged for some reason, statistically, or whatever made them pop up. ‘Hey, this is a guy you should take a look at. Maybe this guy’s not worth taking a look at.‘ Kind of like a filter. Time is precious.”
According to Hobson, LaBounty, along with application developer Tyler Gross, has been embedded with the Bengals’ scouting department to get a better idea of exactly what they’re looking for in hopes of giving cleaner data at a faster pace to the people who make the decisions.
This is one of the, if not the, most important offseasons in the team’s history. With Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and coming off two consecutive AFC Championship games and a Super Bowl, expectations have been sky-high. The Bengals have failed to meet those expectations for three years, and fans are getting restless.
Hopefully, Hinch, Ramsey, and LaBounty are able to push the league’s smallest scouting department in the right direction.
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