CINCINNATI — Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn and her daughter, vice president Elizabeth Blackburn, sat in a room inside the front offices of Paycor Stadium with a small group of gathered reporters on Monday in advance of the team’s mandatory minicamp.Katie Blackburn quipped as the sun poked through the window, “It’s another beautiful day in Cincinnati.”Sure feels like it inside this building anymore.The Bengals are an offseason removed from one of the most tumultuous in the Joe Burrow era, with stadium lease battles, the Trey Hendrickson and Shemar Stewart sagas and the firing of longtime defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. That was followed by a season where Cincinnati missed the playoffs for a third straight year amid another quarterback injury.Yet, the past six months featured an aggressive overhaul defensively and unprecedented moves for the traditionally conservative franchise. It has injected palpable optimism and positivity into the team and fan base. Players and coaches haven’t been shy about expressing their expectations for 2026, and ownership echoed the sentiment.There’s plenty of reason to smile about now for Bengals ownership and their fans. That was the overwhelming feeling from the 30 minutes spent with the Blackburns on Monday.As for the specifics, they dished on their view of everyone talking about Joe Burrow’s happiness, pursuit of the NFL Draft, changes to the Ring of Honor, potential extensions and the state of the roster.Here’s what was said on those topics and why they mattered.Relationship with BurrowLast year was dominated by conversations about Burrow’s happiness, particularly after more than a few press conferences where the star quarterback left open the possibility of his future not being in Cincinnati while seeking answers to bigger life questions.What’s resulted is a drumbeat of conversations about the Bengals centered on Burrow potentially leaving town, with jersey-swap memes and speculation on sports debate shows keeping the conversation rolling. Burrow defended the front office last month and clearly stated the criticism should stop after what they did in building the “most talented” roster he’s had in the NFL.“He’s a key player on our team,” Katie Blackburn said. “So obviously, you certainly want him to feel like he’s in a good spot. Obviously, we appreciate Joe.”Blackburn recently restructured Burrow’s contract, adding $10 million to this year’s salary cap, partially in response to the money spent to acquire Dexter Lawrence. Blackburn said Burrow’s camp made it known over time that if the club wanted to pull that lever, they were happy to have that conversation.“They were just acknowledging that it’s there,” Katie Blackburn said. “It’s something that we could — I don’t know if you say take advantage of — but use if we felt appropriate.”The Bengals ranking 29th in cap space before the move made it appropriate.“We’re thoughtful about not trying to create something that is problematic in the future, so we’re balanced about doing it,” Katie Blackburn said. “If we can do it and it can help us, then we’re certainly open to doing it and this time, we did.”Burrow’s always had a voice with the front office — sometimes louder and more public than others’. This year, he wasn’t heard as much publicly, but the conversations about the offseason plan of attack continued and Blackburn called the tenor “positive.”“There were conversations with him, and he’s always pretty easy to talk to and there was no rub that he just, he has good conversations that are, I think, productive, certainly not edgy in any way,” she said.Comments from both ownership and Burrow suggest the relationship is in a good spot, but they weren’t concerned about how outsiders would perceive reality.“Internally, there’s a good comfort and confidence with the communication with Joe, and externally that can be spun a little differently,” Elizabeth Blackburn said.NFL Draft pursuitThe NFL Draft has made its way around the league in recent years, including to Pittsburgh and Cleveland in the Bengals’ division. There have been reports of the Bengals going after a future draft, and Katie Blackburn confirmed they are attempting to land the massive NFL event.“We’ve expressed interest, as have many other cities,” she said. “We are exploring it and seeing whether we can have an opportunity to do that. We would love it if we could. We would be excited about it. We’ll continue to work on it to see if it can happen.”The next open draft is in 2029. Next year will be held in Washington, D.C., with 2028 in Minneapolis. Blackburn said they have a call with the league coming up in a “couple of weeks” on the subject.Likely, hotels and the preferred location will be part of that conversation. Elizabeth Blackburn said they are “more engaged right now, but we are still in the feedback phase.” This is also a chance to help the league understand why Cincinnati would be a particularly ideal choice.“There is a bit of an educational process we are going through with the NFL,” she said. “They don’t know the Cincinnati market like we do. We love all the great attributes. We are trying to help get them a little bit up to speed on the vision for a good location. We think the draft would be such a great benefit and continue the story, really, this stadium started with enhancing the riverfront and investing in the downtown.”The Bengals are also stressing that the proximity to so many NFL markets should work to their advantage. No decision is imminent on the matter.“I think we’ve got a really good story to tell,” Elizabeth Blackburn said.Ring of Honor changesThe Bengals announced changes to the Ring of Honor’s cadence last month. They will be inducting two former players this season, including one who must be from an original group of seven remaining from when the Ring began in 2021.There were 15 on that original list and all the remaining players were from the 1980s or earlier. They introduced modern-era nominees to the process this season.As for why they wouldn’t just put the remaining seven from the original ballot in before resetting the cadence, Elizabeth Blackburn recognized this has been an internal debate for a while.“To be direct on that concept, it went all the way back to the very beginning, which was why didn’t you just induct everybody at once, and we debated it and thought a long time about the right way to put a process into place that, in my mind, paid players their due and we landed on wanting to keep the number of inductees in any given year small, so that they have their moment in the sun,” she said. “We still feel really good about the ballot in and of itself, being that it is meant to be a prestigious recognition, and we continue to use the voting period and just general Ring of Honor content to tell the stories of the members on the ballot, because that’s a recognition in and of itself, and we want to see that smaller inductee group continue. That’s actually why we’re going to move to the one per year to just give it a prestigious feel and give it longevity into the future.”Potential extensionsThe Bengals have a collection of four extension candidates in cornerbacks DJ Turner and Dax Hill, along with edge Myles Murphy and running back Chase Brown.All are entering the final year of their rookie deals.Turner is the most prominent (and expensive) name on the list. The 25-year-old admitted last week that his camp is in talks with the club about a deal.Easier said than done for Blackburn and the Bengals with five players currently having a cap hit of at least $20 million per season in 2027 (Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Boye Mafe and Dexter Lawrence).“It’s something that we’ll have to work through,” Blackburn said when asked specifically about Turner and Hill. “Love those guys. Love DJ, love Dax, and we obviously have our work cut out for us as to how to try to figure out how to retain them while we have the other commitments that we have. That’s just something we’re going to have to work through, but obviously we love those guys, and we’ll explore what we can to see where we end up.”State of the rosterKatie Blackburn was asked to assess her view of the roster as a whole and it came with an expected positivity because of the moves that were made, with a recognition that they feel like even positions that might be perceived weak spots on the outside are not seen in that light.“I feel good about the roster,” she said. “I mean, it’s hard to ask for much more, because I think we’re pretty solid. I think our offensive line, which sometimes it was a spot of focus, we sort of built up a lot more stability there, and so we have great wide receivers, really solid tight ends, running back, I mean, there’s not a glaring issue, so hopefully everyone’s gonna go out there and make it fun.”