'The Only Shortcoming' - Former Bengals Head Coach Details Bengals Scouting Philosophy, Growth This Century

The Inside Football crew on the Trey Wingo Network answered a few Bengals mailbag questions on a recent show.

Former NFL general manager John Keim had a question for former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis about why the team has always used far fewer scouts in that department.

Not Enough Eyes?

Cincinnati Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin, right, observes minicamp, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Kettering Health Practice Fields in downtown Cincinnati. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

It's something that Lewis started changing and has slowly changed over this century, but on average, Cincinnati still employs fewer scouts than most NFL teams.

"When I took the job, we doubled it right then," Lewis noted on the show. "That was the one thing that was done differently in the past, through his father's direction, being Paul Brown. They wanted the coaches involved, and when I took the job, part of the process, and we talked about it, is that the coaches can't be responsible for going out and looking at the tight end at Florida Atlantic. They've got to be able to evaluate what we did schematically during the season and begin to make our revisions going into next season, and then evaluate our personnel, and then evaluate the personnel throughout the NFL."

Lewis pointed to the pro personnel scouting of other teams' players as a lingering "shortcoming."

"The only shortcoming would be having more ability in the pro area," Lewis noted. "That it's constant, so they're not wearing both hats. The people that are in the building, the personnel evaluators in the building, don't have to wear both hats and go from the college evaluation to now evaluating the pro personnel when January comes around after they've submitted all their college stuff. To me, that's the only drawback that remains in comparison to Duke, who doesn't want to have a huge personnel department. He wants the guys that he trained brought in that building and trained underneath him, and know they all speak the same language and see the player through similar lenses."

Cincinnati made a couple of scouting department additions last summer, noted by our Jay Morrison.

The rest of the organization has made major changes throughout the Joe Burrow era, and we'll see if it's all enough to get Cincinnati back into contention this fall. Burrow arguably has the most talent around him he's ever had in Cincinnati. Now the roster has to stay healthy in a league largely won by the team with good quarterback play that avoids injury attrition the best.

Check out the full chat below:

For more on the Bengals, subscribe to our YouTube Channel and be sure to check us out on your favorite audio platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon. Make sure you bookmark BengalsTalk.com for the latest Bengals news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns, and so much more! We're a one-stop shop for all things Cincinnati Bengals! Join the 65,000+ Bengals fans who subscribe to us on YouTube.

Add us as a preferred source on Google