“Certainly (Director of Player Personnel) Duke (Tobin) and his staff have gotten things moving behind the scenes,” Taylor said. “They’ve gone to all those all-star games and already had a lot of meetings. Some I would have been a part of last year, really just taking notes and hearing the information the scouts have. That doesn’t change. There will be catching up we have to do as coaches obviously, but Duke and those guys have not missed a beat.
“The combine is the first thing coming up. The beauty of how things are now with the combine is we have access to these Zooms, it really changes the way the coaches can get information from the players from an Xs and Os standpoint. There’s not the pressure of you only get the combine and get maybe one visit from a player. You can have all these Zooms and get all the information over the next 60 days. That allows us to really gear up and play catch-up with the combine guys but also gear up for free agency -- ours and others -- to make sure we’re making great decisions and all on the same page.”
The Bengals rebuilt with high draft picks and increased spending in free agency the past two offseasons.
Nose tackle D.J. Reader said he picked the Bengals over the Broncos when he was a free agent in March 2020 because he saw more potential in quarterback Joe Burrow, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 Draft, than Drew Lock. Last week, Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski told multiple media outlets that if he wasn’t going to be able to play with retiring quarterback Tom Brady anymore, he wanted to come play with Burrow.
Taylor said he’s not surprised to hear players making comments like that and it’s clear the “Burrow effect” on free agents is real.
“I think that’s true,” Taylor said. “I think that people have watched how he’s gone about his business in just a short amount of time, responding from an injury, being the Comeback Player of the Year, helping a team get to a Super Bowl. What am I missing? I think everybody sees the same thing. Everyone who’s on the Zoom, our coaching staff, our players, people around the league. They have a tremendous amount of respect for the job that he’s done and the way he’s gone about it. And that’s certainly a big draw for us.”
Winning and making a Super Bowl should help as well, but Taylor noted that money is the first big attractor so that plays a factor.
“You want that combined with a place that they feel like they can win games and be a part of a place where they enjoy coming to work every single day, and I think that people have seen that from afar from our own players’ actions, from how we’ve played on the field,” Taylor said. “And they see that this is a team that has a really solid foundation, that’s built for the future. I anticipate players wanting to be a part of that. Every year is going to be different in terms of what our needs are and what our approach is to the draft and free agency. There are certainly some players on our own team that are up, that we want to be a big part of our future as well. And again, those conversations will be ongoing here over the next couple of weeks.”
Asked specifically about Jessie Bates and how likely it is the team will get a new deal done for him, Taylor indicated those discussions are ongoing. Bates could be a candidate for a franchise tag, which would need to be done by March 14 to keep him from leaving Cincinnati, but a long-term contract would still be a possibility in that case.
“Jessie’s approach has been tremendous all year,” Taylor said. “I’ve really been proud of him. He’s a big part of what we do. We’re really proud of how he’s led this team and how he’s played for us, really over the last four years. Those are conversations that will always be ongoing. I think everyone knows we want Jessie to be a part of this, and we’ll just continue to work through those discussions.”
Making a Super Bowl doesn’t change Taylor’s emphasis on building a culture in the locker room of doing things “the right way.” He plans to still make that a big point in roster decisions.
“I think that the players who signed on to be a part of this last year felt that,” Taylor said. “They felt that from our own players, the ones they had relationships with. I think that even despite a lot of the losses we had, people could see a team that was fighting and was very close and wanted to be a part of that and turning it around. … And so, I certainly think that they’re good examples of outsiders that saw what we were building here and wanted to be a part of it, believed in what we were doing and they helped us kind of get over that hump to where we got this year. And I think that other people will see that as well.”
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