As most who know the Cincinnati Bengals could have predicted, it was head coach Zac Taylor out there in the middle of the week explaining how the front office’s trade deadline agreement fell apart.
With Duke Tobin sticking to his rule about not speaking with the media in-season, Taylor was effectively thrown under the bus at his midweek presser.
Speaking with reporters, Taylor admitted that, though he wasn’t fully comfortable with the topic, he would relay Tobin’s commentary about the failed trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.
"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. 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, playing at such a high level."
Shoved into an almost ridiculous situation, Taylor played it off incredibly well and pivoted back to stressing confidence in the front office and roster itself. Tobin and the latter had attempted to acquire edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie to provide relief while rookie Cashius Howell was on injured reserve, only to misunderstand rules around trades impacting the NFL’s compensatory draft pick process.
Still, it’s a poor look for Tobin and the Bengals. Committing a gaffe and only correcting it when Twitter started analyzing the trade is bad enough. Refusing to break Tobin’s rule about in-season media meetings and instead predictably making Taylor the one to face the music is even worse.
This is accountability from afar, essentially. Taylor apologized to the Eagles, too, certainly implying that another team is mad at how things shook out on a deadline because of this gaffe. And Taylor is apologizing on behalf of the Bengals front office, too, instead of fans getting it from that front office.
So, a nice capper to the latest Bengals trade deadline oddity (remember the fax machine? Shaun Rogers?) as Taylor and the team look to shove past this noise and get back to football.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals throw out Zac Taylor to explain trade deadline disaster
