The Cincinnati Bengals have performed so poorly this season that it has many fans wondering if this is finally going to be the end of the Duke Tobin era. The whole Logan Wilson situation was handled poorly, and it might kick-start a chain of events that ends with Tobin getting fired.
Wilson requested a trade after the Bengals decided to lean into the youth movement by starting a pair of rookie inside linebackers in Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter. After giving up 39 points to the then-winless New York Jets and 47 points to the Chicago Bears in two home losses, this plan may not be working very well.
Wilson has now been officially traded to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick. The Bengals are giving some of Tobin's top picks an even longer leash to play around with, and that may come back to bite him.
Cincinnati's 2025 class will get plenty of rope, but the end of the 2025 season without Wilson may illustrate how deep the rot in this roster goes, all of which will reflect badly on Tobin.
Bengals' Logan Wilson trade may lead to Duke Tobin's firing
While the biggest problem with this Bengals team is a terrible defensive line that is unable to get any sort of pressure outside of Trey Hendrickson, starting two rookies that came into the NFL with questions about their ability to cover NFL-level athletes is part of why Cincinnati is in the situation they are.
Essentially, the Bengals chose Knight and Carter over Wilson. Even though he is going to a Dallas defense that is just as bad as Cincinnati's unit, Wilson's fresh coat of paint might be all he needs to re-establish himself as one of the better inside linebackers in his conference.
If the two rookies struggle alongside much-maligned top pick Shemar Stewart, the defense will remain pitiful despite Tobin investing a ton of NFL Draft capital in trying to rectify this problem. Will the Bengals let him try to fix this issue one more time, or just wash their hands of this whole business?
The contracts Cincinnati handed out on offense mean the only way to effectively turn this defense around is to draft and develop their own internal talent. Tobin has proven largely unable to realize that goal, and this 2025 class might be what ultimately does him in. Mike Brown is loyal and patient, but will he tolerate this?