Bengals de facto GM Duke Tobin discussed revamping the team\u2019s defensive line room, even though most of the players are entering their 30s or are already there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re open to anybody we think has life left in their NFL body,\u201d Tobin said, via The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re playing longer these days, and we\u2019re keenly aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Bengals DT Jonathan Allen<\/a> believes he still has a lot of good football ahead of him and said his role is different from that of a skill position that heavily relies on athleticism.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an understanding of how offenses work, an anticipation of what they are going to do can help you so much more than a cornerback where if you don\u2019t have the speed to keep up with a go ball,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard at 35 to keep up with receivers just coming into the league. As a defensive tackle, you can play in the league at a high level a lot longer. Yes, there\u2019s a lot of physicality and flexibility and all that, but also all your knowledge and pre-snap awareness and pre-snap keys. It\u2019s hard to find guys who can rush the passer and play the run and be a three-down defensive lineman and do it at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n Todd Monken embarks on his first season as the Browns\u2019 head coach following his three years as the Ravens\u2019 offensive coordinator. When reflecting on where things went wrong in Baltimore last season, Monken feels that he didn\u2019t get the most out of Lamar Jackson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t coach well enough,\u201d Monken said, via Brian Wacker of The Baltimore Sun.<\/a> \u201cI didn\u2019t get Lamar to play at his best when the best was needed. Ultimately, it\u2019s a get-it-done business.\u201d<\/p>\n Monken interviewed for several head coaching positions in 2023 and 2024, but never landed a job. He thinks his \u201cbrash\u201d demeanor rubbed some people the wrong way.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do think I\u2019m authentic,\u201d Monken said. \u201cSometimes [players and others] don\u2019t like the approach. I think maybe that\u2019s the first thing they could say is he\u2019s a little brash, or an old white dude, or whatever. It\u2019s fine. It\u2019s true. I always laughed about it \u2019cause I\u2019d be like, you know, I interviewed for these head coaching jobs and they want to interview me because of who I am, and then when I am that, I don\u2019t get the job. I\u2019m like, wait a minute. You were kind of thinking, what do you think I was? Who\u2019d you think I was gonna be? And that is why, like, there shouldn\u2019t be any gray. At times I did a great job of it [in Baltimore], and at times I didn\u2019t. Same at Georgia. Same will happen here. I\u2019ve gotten better and better at it, and that\u2019s from working for Kirby [Smart] and for John. To confront anything that gets in the way of winning, and that\u2019s internally and externally.\u201d<\/p>\n As for last year\u2019s 8-9 finish, Monken said things started to go south when Jackson got hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHard to really say or pinpoint any one thing,\u201d Monken said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go well when [Jackson] got hurt. Ultimately, we didn\u2019t play as well as we could have early, other than the Bills game, and we were still choppy for a number of reasons, and they\u2019re all legit. You could name 50 of them. And you get this thing going, it\u2019s hard to wrap your hands around it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Steelers enter 2026 with a new coaching staff under Mike McCarthy, including veteran DC Patrick Graham. Pittsburgh S Jaquan Brisker<\/a> said Graham is doing well, translating how they will make calls and what the expectations are for their system.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of guys say it\u2019s a lot different, especially with the installs,\u201d Brisker said, via Mark Kaboly.<\/a> \u201cPG (DC Patrick Graham) is teaching us the way the calls are coming in, you know, I\u2019m not going to give you the sauce yet, but we are getting our stuff very early and very quickly, and I love it. Let\u2019s put pressure on everybody to make sure of what they\u2019re doing. And it\u2019s definitely different, especially the stuff we do out here with the strength coaches, too. You know, starting and getting a lot of speed and things like that, that\u2019s a lot different.\u201d<\/p>\n Steelers DE T.J. Watt<\/a> said there has been \u201ca lot of studying\u201d at this point in the offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot. Yeah, I\u2019m not going to lie to you. It\u2019s been a lot of studying, a lot of learning, a lot on the iPad,\u201d Watt said. \u201cAlso trying to see new faces, not only players and coaches. There\u2019s been a lot of good work. You don\u2019t see benches out there anymore. It\u2019s much different. Change is good,\u201d Watt said.<\/p>\n Brisker had 14 total tackles, a sack, and two pass defenses in his final game with the Bears in the NFC Divisional Round. He feels like his performance was a sign of what he could do in the right system and that he has a good opportunity in Pittsburgh under Graham.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like that playoff game was what I could do all year with the Bears,\u201d Brisker said. \u201cI was surprised \u2026 I think everybody knows what I bring to the table, film-wise. And obviously, I just had to be in the right system. Someone who could trust me, love me, and things like that, who assesses me as who I am. And I feel like that\u2019s what Pittsburgh has given me. I\u2019m able to play football. I\u2019m happy here. I\u2019m able to be me. And you\u2019re going to see what PG does with me, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bengals de facto GM Duke Tobin discussed revamping the team\u2019s defensive line room, even though most of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,20911,7,4423,9085,895,7866,6,14269,169,5226,23813],"class_list":["post-942989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimoreravens","tag-duke-tobin","tag-football","tag-jaquan-brisker","tag-jonathan-allen","tag-lamar-jackson","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-graham","tag-ravens","tag-t-j-watt","tag-todd-monken"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116903478834851111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}