On Tuesday, the Bengals backed out of a trade for edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie after it was revealed that the deal might cost Cincinnati with a future compensatory draft pick.
During his Wednesday press conference, head coach Zac Taylor explained the situation from the perspective of Bengals director of player personnel — and de facto General Manager — Duke Tobin.
“Obviously, we tried something yesterday,” Taylor said. “Duke was very explicit with me when he came and spoke to me about how he wanted this portrayed. I’m not comfortable doing it, but I’m going to do what he asked. We did make an effort to put some depth in there in place of Cashius [Howell]. As we got into it, it was going to be more costly than we initially anticipated.
“He’s really apologetic about it and wants it made clear — Philly was a great trade partner. It was on our end. Certainly, we have a ton of confidence in our front office and how they do things. They’ve given us the players that have allowed us to be 6-2 right now, and playing at such a high level. So, we’ll put that behind us and move forward, and just get excited for this game on Sunday. Our locker room is in a great place right now.”
Taylor noted Tobin didn’t really tell him how everything went down and he didn’t ask the question.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. It probably took three minutes of my day yesterday away from watching tape,” Taylor said. “So, got a lot of faith in how those guys operate and we’ll just move forward with it.”
With that, the Bengals didn’t make any deadline moves to improve the team. Taylor said he and Tobin like where the team is.
“I think you can talk to the players in the locker room, they really like where we’re at,” Taylor said. “So, this is a team with a lot of confidence right now. I know it’s a fun period of time — the weeks leading up to the trade deadline — for fans … but the truth is, we really like where we’re at. Our guys are playing with a high degree of confidence and we’ll continue to move forward.”