INDIANAPOLIS _ If no news is good news, the Bengals had a good day Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine when they reiterated they have big offseason plans but don't want the rest of the league to get a bead on them.

"We have resources to attack the offseason in a big way, and we want to do that," said director of player personnel Duke Tobin, who also said he believes his team "can win it all."

"In terms of how we're going to do that, how we're going to allocate our resources … our own free agents, what's our intentions there? … I'm not going to get into that right here."

Which meant that Tobin stayed mum on Trey Hendrickson, the All-Pro sacker who missed most of last year's $30 million season as he headed into free agency. The Bengals have a bunch of options with Tobin conceding that putting the $27 million franchise tag on Hendrickson before trading him is a formidable challenge.

"All trades are difficult. You have to find a partner. You have to have cooperation with your players," said Tobin, who has six days to use the tag. "Trades can be complicated. That hypothetical scenario would be very complicated."

The Bengals prefer not to push money into future salary cap years, but Tobin says they're all in like last year when they churned out more than $400 million in new deals. That means re-structuring quarterback Joe Burrow’s deal isn't off the table.

"Cap dollars have to be counted, so if we can accomplish what we want to accomplish without pushing things into future problems, we'll do that," Tobin said. "If we need that, we'll consider that as well. We're open to doing anything we need to do to improve our team. Where we're satisfied we're going to win a championship. That's our mindset, and that's the way we're going into the offseason. But we have resources right now, and we'll see what we can get done."

After last year's offseason in which the Bengals dropped historic salaries on wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, head coach Zac Taylor is just fine with the calm before the storm of free agency that begins in two weeks.

"I would take a quiet offseason over a loud offseason," Taylor said. "This feels like a quiet offseason from a contract standpoint, and I'm happy with that."

DEEP DRAFT

The Bengals are picking No. 10 in the April draft and need plenty of defensive line help. It looks like they can stock up in the draft, but that they don't have to get it in the first round. Plus, Tobin indicated that the first pick is so high that they can let the board dictate the position.

He says the rest of the draft is fairly solid with the Bengals ranking nearly 400 prospects draftable, an uncharacteristically high number.

"I think there's depth. I think there are a lot of D-linemen who are attractive guys for different roles as you go through the whole draft really," Tobin said. "I think we have almost 400 ranked players on our board right now. Guys who have enough talent to be considered draftable, which is probably a little bit heavier than normal.

"I always look at kind of the first five rounds. There are enough players to satisfy our picks in all of those rounds with extra (picks), which is good … Some years, we've got to keep forcing guys up the board. This year, we're probably going to force some guys down the board a little bit. But I do think there's depth."

Which means this might be the year trading back in the first could be inviting if the grade at No. 10 just isn't there and picking up one or two inviting mid-round picks is.

"We're going to rank the 10 best players and go beyond that. If there are opportunities and we're not satisfied and there's an opportunity to trade back for more picks, we'll do that," Tobin said. "We always are open to doing that kind of stuff.

"The opportunity is not always there. If you're not super excited about who's there, the odds are the other team is not super excited about coming to your pick. That happens more than not, and there's not an opportunity at the time to move out of the pick. You have to be prepared to take a player. If what's left for us at 10 is a dropdown, that's what we'll take. If it's the best of the next, and we'll feel good about it. When you're as high as we are in the top 10, you can't eliminate any position. You have to be open-minded to taking the guy that's clearly the best football player."

RUSH TO JUDGMENT

Tobin says there is pass rush help out there in free agency and the draft. The vets, Tobin says, "have to be interested in us. They have to make it to free agency. It's got to fit within the context of what we're talking about."

In the mid-rounds of the draft, there also look to be edgers outside and three-techniques inside that can help.

"It's also a good rush draft. There are a lot of guys in the draft that we have high regard for," Tobin said. "It's a two-pronged approach. You want to be good on first and second down, as well. And it's not just who's doing it, but what they're doing. And we're working on all those areas to get it fixed. But there are opportunities in every bucket of bringing players in. And we're going to look at all the buckets."

CAS-ING THE RUN

It's certainly been a quiet offseason for Taylor and his coaching staff. The only major change is Taylor adding the title of run game coordinator to tight ends coach James Casey’s role.

Casey, one of Taylor's first hires when he got the job in 2019, has long been a Zac go-to. Don't look for major changes in how Taylor handles the run game. It's an area he relies on offensive coordinator and running backs coach Justin Hill, as well as offensive line coach Scott Peters. But it shows how well thought of Casey is.

"Our overall structure, we still have a lot of people we trust in the run game who are still a big part of it," Taylor said. "But I thought James was very deserving of this title because of the work he's put in over the last seven years. James has never asked me for anything.

"He's one of the hardest workers I've ever been around. I've said it a million times. The best tight ends coach in the league. How he sees the game is, I think, unique, and it's important to have on our staff. Every time he opens his mouth, I value his opinion because I know it's coming from a place of confidence and a lot of hard work that he's put in to formulate that opinion."

SENIOR MAN

That coaching continuity isn't to be taken lightly in an offseason head coach Mike Tomlin left the Steelers, John Harbaugh got let go by the Ravens, and Kevin Stefanski got booted hours after the Browns beat the Bengals in the finale at Paycor Stadium.

That leaves Taylor, 42 years young, the senior coach in the AFC North heading into his eighth season in Cincinnati.

"Strange," said Taylor when asked how it feels to be the division's senior man. "I've got a lot of respect for those three guys I've been competing against the last few years, and obviously great coaches and (they) have had a lot of success. So, it's a little strange, but I'm sure that I'll get used to it very quickly.

"I'm glad we have continuity. So I don't have to make a lot of changes and we are able to be in the spot we are here on Feb. 24th."

SLANTS AND SCREENS

Tobin beefed up his scouting staff back in May when he hired NFL college and pro veteran scouts Josh Hinch and Tyler Ramsey, and added an analytics guru in scouting research analyst Trey LaBounty. At their first combine, Tobin is pleased with how LaBounty has teamed with director of football research Sam Francis and Tyler Gross, the club's senior application developer, in easing the workload of the scouts.

"I would rather have the guy watching the player than doing the grunt work on the back end of it and typing in the who all is going to the Senior Bowl database and ranking, comparisons and all that kind of stuff," Tobin said. "I want the guys doing what they're paid to do and doing what their talent says they should do, which is evaluating. So we're always looking for efficiencies, and we found that in our data team that Sam and Trey and Tyler have put together.

" We've got a pretty complex and robust scouting system now that we have built from the ground up over time, and they've elevated it to another level that gives us all the resources we want when our scout is looking at the guy, needs the comparisons, needs the background on the guy, needs everything to evaluate the guy correctly." …

Last offseason's hot topic was the Bengals' effort to get off to a good start after Taylor's first six seasons netted one win in the first two games of the year. Asked about getting more physical in training camp this year, Taylor pointed to last year's 2-0 start. That despite Burrow suffering an injury early in the second game.

"I feel like we started the season 2-0 and played OK in those first two games. We just need to build off that start," Taylor said. "I thought our training camp was good. We want to keep it fresh for the players. We don't want it to be the same routine every year, whether that's offseason or training camp." …

Safety Jordan Battle got a lot of love from Taylor and Tobin. A third-round pick in 2023 out of Alabama, Battle blossomed into a solid strong-ish type safety and it looks like they're searching for his running mate in the draft or free agency.

"He's scratching the surface of what he can be. And I think we put a good group around him, I think he can, help direct it," Tobin said. "He's got a lot of traits you look for in the position. And I feel like Jordan is a guy that's developing a leadership role on our team, which you have to have in the back end there." …

If Bengals right guard Dalton Risner's agent, the ubiquitous Drew Rosenhaus, is here and he always is, there could be a conversation. Both have indicated they want to extend as the sides seek the right number.

"I've got a ton of respect for him, really enjoyed getting to know him. He's really, you know, a fantastic person just to be around in the locker room on a day-to-day basis," Tobin said. "And he's a guy that we've talked to, and we'll see if we can get something done. He's got decisions to make, and we've got decisions to make, and he's a guy that we like a lot.