Bengals' Duke Tobin defends front office after disappointing season

CINCINNATI (AP) — Duke Tobin did make one change in the wake of a disappointing 6-11 season by the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals director of player personnel did an end of the season availability on Friday to discuss missing the postseason for the third straight season, instead of waiting three weeks until the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, to discuss the state of the team.

Tobin's news conference also came four days after owner and president Mike Brown announced Tobin and coach Zac Taylor would remain in place for another season.

“If your question is, ‘Do I have confidence in myself?’ I do. But most importantly, I have confidence in the people and in the processes that we have here. It is not up to me to determine whether I am here or not,” Tobin said.

Tobin spent most of the 63 minutes recapping the past season, which ended with a 20-18 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, while defending the front office and coaching staff's approach despite the team's first losing season since 2020.

When asked the biggest thing that needs to change, Tobin pointed to the most obvious.

“Our record. We need to win games that we should win, instead of finding ways to lose games that we should win."

The Bengals got off to a 2-0 start, but dropped eight of nine when Joe Burrow was sidelined due to a broken toe. Burrow returned on Thanksgiving night and led the Bengals to a 34-12 win at Baltimore, but was 3-3 down the stretch.

Tobin's main frustration was the Bengals failure to play complimentary football. They have lost seven times over the past two seasons when they have scored at least 30 points and lost.

Cincinnati also became the first team to lose at least three games in consecutive seasons in which it scored at least 34 points. The only other squads to do that in a season are the 2002 Kansas City Chiefs and 1985 San Diego Chargers.

“You have to find ways to close games, and that has been our number one problem,” Tobin said. “I think that last game against Cleveland is just a microcosm of what we’ve had. The defense goes out there and really pitches one of the finest games you could have, and instead the offense gives 14 points up (on turnovers), and we lose the game. We have to get to that point where that focus, strain and finish is in our DNA. Our players have to understand that."

Tobin will look to improve a defense that was ranked 31st, including last against the run.

The biggest area could be looking to retool a defensive line that was near the bottom of the league in sacks.

“Successful defenses, in my opinion, they have to be able to pressure the passer. You’d like to be able to pressure with four I think we need, we need pass rush. I think that relieves some of the strain on the coverage,” Tobin said.

Another priority will be trying to sign cornerbacks DJ Turner and Dax Hill to extensions.

Tobin also said he didn't see any major changes or additions to the coaching staff, personnel department or scouting. With scouting departments well into preparations for April's NFL draft, most of those changes throughout the league do not happen until May.

“We have a football team that has some challenges that we’ve got to solve. Beyond that, we have a football team that has a lot of positives to build on and a lot of things we’re proud of and a lot of reasons for optimism," Tobin said. "It’s all going to be about the who’s doing it, the what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it. That’s the focus.”

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FILE - Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)