Zac Taylor and Duke Tobin receive an important reminder from Bengals EVP Katie Blackburn heading into the 2026 season
Cincinnati Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn opened up about Zac Taylor and Duke Tobin remaining with the club, and what expectations are heading into the season.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ offseason began with head coach Zac Taylor and director of player personnel Duke Tobin being retained by team president Mike Brown for 2026. Executive vice president Katie Blackburn, the daughter of Brown, made it clear the upcoming season is all anyone’s focused on, putting the pressure on both coach and de facto general manager to produce results this year.
“We obviously are hoping to have a successful season this year,” Blackburn said Monday to local media. “I know (Tobin and Taylor) want to do that as much as I want to do that. I can’t predict anything into the future, but we’re certainly counting on, right now, having a good season and going from there.”
Katie Blackburn sets expectations for 2026 Bengals
Brown is still atop the organizational chart of the front office. Blackburn, however, carries a larger voice in the day-to-day decision making these days. She’s the main negotiator of major contracts in the organization. Nothing significant happens without her say so.
Giving the coach and head of the personnel department another year to right the ship would qualify as a significant thing.
Blackburn has been away from the media this entire offseason up until Monday’s surprise to the public. She didn’t directly say this year was the do-or-die season for either Taylor or Tobin. She did emphasize the reason why they’re still on the job.
Zigging while the rest zag
Blackburn and the front office are banking on the continuity of operations helping out this year’s Bengals. While the rest of the AFC North is starting fresh with new coaching staffs, Taylor and Tobin were kept together for at least one more season.
Blackburn confirmed this was a reason for keeping the status quo in this regard.
“Both Zac and Duke are experienced guys with proven success and really good people,” Blackburn said. “We feel good about them for a lot of reasons. I think there’s also that element of consistency that hopefully will prove out to be beneficial, too. I think those are the things that we would rather try to take advantage of and build on rather than having to regroup and figure things out a little bit from scratch.”
The message is as clear as it gets from this ownership family. Faith has been placed in the main figureheads beneath them. Cincinnati returning to the postseason is the expectation. It’s the only way Blackburn and Co. can justify running it all back for another year.