Bengals make another key front office move that signals their continued shift in the right direction
The Cincinnati Bengals added another layer to their evolving analytics infrastructure this offseason, promoting personnel staffer Tyler Gross to director of football applications.
The Cincinnati Bengals added another layer to their evolving analytics infrastructure this offseason, promoting personnel staffer Tyler Gross to director of football applications.
Per ESPN’s Ben Baby, Gross previously served as a senior application developer and will now work alongside Sam Francis, the team’s director of football research.
The move signals Cincinnati’s continued investment in the data-driven decision-making that helped produce a highly regarded 2026 NFL Draft class and one of the franchise’s most productive offseasons in recent years.
Francis has acted as the head of the Bengals’ analytics department, a role that took shape last year. Now he has even more help under director of player personnel Duke Tobin’s lead.
Bengals’ previous internal moves paid dividends this offseason
Cincinnati notably expanded its scouting department last year and made significant changes above them in terms of player personnel. Trey Brown, Mike Potts, and Steven Radicevic were all promoted to assistant general manager. Andrew Johnson was promoted to scouting executive while Tyler Ramsey, Josh Hinch, and Trey Labounty were added to the scouting department. Labounty was specifically given the role of scouting research analyst.
Francis earned his promotion to director of football research amid all the change.
It was a much different personnel department from top-to-bottom that helped build the Bengals roster you see today. New faces helped introduce new systems to gather and prioritize information in a more efficient way. What ensued was a strong free agency period and an acclaimed draft class that featured quality Day 3 value finds Brian Parker II, Jack Endries, and Landon Robinson.
Francis’ promotion and the scouting department’s expansion, with a greater emphasis on analytics, appear to be a clear positive for how Cincinnati builds its roster. Gross’ new title should be another step in the right direction for how the Bengals continue to operate.
Another step in the right direction
Francis has been with the organization since Zac Taylor was hired back in 2019. He was a one-man machine for the better part of the last decade until Labounty arrived with new ideas. Their department is now growing even more with Gross taking on a larger role.
Cincinnati appears to be taking what it’s learned from the past year and building on it by giving Francis more help and more influence. That matters. It’s the difference between making a one-time adjustment and committing to a sustained philosophy.
It’s unclear exactly what the “football applications” title entails on a day-to-day basis. That said, any additional support Francis receives in this regard should be a positive sign for how Cincinnati values better information leading to better decisions with its investments in roster construction.
The Bengals are putting more resources behind an approach that has already produced inspiring work. That’s the kind of growth worth tracking heading into 2026.