CINCINNATI — Monday marked my 17th year covering the Bengals’ media luncheon — better known as mock turtle soup, the annual unofficial kickoff of the season.The first one involved team president Mike Brown sending shockwaves through the club lounge and NFL landscape by firing back at Carson Palmer with his stance on an offseason trade request.Over the years, the gathering has featured contract standoffs, shots directed at the league, countless years of support for coaches and coordinators, stadium posturing and always a heavy dose of optimism before a serving of orange sherbet.They are rarely boring … until this year.Inside the OC-HC relationship between Dan Pitcher and Zac TaylorRobert MaysHeld in a freshly renovated club lounge and with Brown not participating in the media interview pods for the first time, the Bengals’ offseason without distractions was on full display.There are no holdouts or hold-ins expected, despite a handful of candidates in the final year of productive rookie deals. There are no gaping holes on the roster. The afterglow of a trade for Dexter Lawrence that changed the organization’s vision as a whole and the defense as a rebuild project still shined upon the Bengals’ brass in attendance.Joe Burrow is engaged, healthy and happy, calling this the same way he felt before his national championship season at LSU. The stars are aligned and paid in Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Lawrence, among others. Continuity reigns with every major coach, coordinator and front office member back after a season of hard lessons in 2025.They felt the injection of leadership this offseason. They saw the chemistry start to develop during OTAs.There are no distractions, merely a real feeling of a potentially special season brewing.“Everyone is motivated,” de facto GM Duke Tobin said at Monday’s luncheon. “Everyone senses the opportunity that is in front of us for themselves and for the team.”Yes, optimism rolls in as thick as the July humidity at the start of training camp every year, but undeniably, this year felt different than most and certainly a significant departure from the last three seasons filled with contract squabbles and Burrow rehabs.That theme mattered more than any of the normal serving of news and notes that came out of the conversations with Tobin, coach Zac Taylor, offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher, defensive coordinator Al Golden and special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons.That doesn’t mean the notes to track over the next six weeks of camp and preseason were absent from the proceedings. Here are seven things I learned or had confirmed during the hour of chatting with Bengals’ officials.• I noted above that Brown didn’t take questions from reporters this year. He attended and gave a short speech while presenting the Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching award to Anderson High School head coach Evan Dreyer.Brown, who turns 91 next month, looked and sounded as good as he has in recent years. He still was out at every OTA practice open to media this offseason and is expected to be out there for every camp practice over the next six months.“He’s here every day,” Tobin said. “He takes a vacation at 5 or 6 o’clock every day. That’s his only vacation.”Bengals owner and president Mike Brown speaks during Monday’s season kickoff media day event. (Sam Greene / Imagn Images)The Bengals have changed the cadence of their media availability with front office members this offseason. Executive vice president Katie Blackburn spoke before mandatory minicamp, Tobin held a post-draft press conference, the three assistant general managers all participated in draft weekend and Tobin also held a tense press conference the week after the season ended. There was no shortage of accountability with the front office this offseason.Brown has always fought for this event. He’s used it as an opportunity to talk about football and anything else reporters would throw at him since he took over for his father in 1991. In recent years, the setup has become challenging for Brown, who battles hearing issues. There may be times when we hear from him again, but the organizational structure has gradually shifted over the last two decades to his children and grandchildren, as well as Tobin, locking in on the daily operations.We’ll see where all this goes, and this appears to have been a tough decision internally, but Brown is still very much around and a part of the football operation in the same capacity as he has been.• Defensive tackle B.J. Hill was placed on the Active/PUP list this weekend. He had a procedure this offseason and has been working his way back.He is not expected to miss all of camp, according to Taylor, but he didn’t want to put any specific timeline on his return.“He’s doing well,” Taylor said. “He is doing as well as we had hoped; we’ll just continue to take it day to day with him.”Hill battled through injury much of last season, so getting him right will be a priority before the season starts. The Bengals also added Jonathan Allen so Hill won’t be relied upon as heavily and can play a more rotational role. The Bengals also have third-year tackle Kris Jenkins and rookie seventh-rounder Landon Robinson battling behind them.• All expectations are that cornerback DJ Turner, along with other extension candidates Dax Hill, Myles Murphy and Chase Brown, will be full participants in training camp.Tobin and Taylor both stated that expectation and hadn’t had any reason to believe otherwise. Not all players have reported to camp, but everyone also participated in OTAs, which indicates the expectation for the next six weeks.• Will the Bengals make any more moves? They could use a veteran presence at cornerback and offensive tackle, specifically, and never added anyone of significance to the linebacker group.Judging by Tobin’s response, looking for more pieces on this roster is not Plan A.“I feel good about our team and where it is at,” Tobin said. “I’m hoping to not have to do a bunch of replacements. That’s not the plan. I can’t predict injuries and needs that arise. We are always looking to improve our team, whether it’s improving the 90th man on our team or the 84th man on our team or the 26th man on our team. They are all different price points, but we are always looking to improve our team. If there is a guy that is out there that we think is a little better than somebody who is not getting it done for us, we will go ahead and do it. With the restrictions we have in place … there are financial restrictions in this league. That is why there is a salary cap. They exist this year, next year; you have to be cognizant of all of it.”Certainly, if a position sustains damage, Tobin would never block off the idea of adding, and that’s in play every year. But if there was a thought that they see any position as a problem in need of reinforcements right now, they do not.• The battle for swing tackle behind starters Amarius Mims and Orlando Brown Jr. is absolutely a competition. Cody Ford would be the leader in the clubhouse, but Javon Foster, Andrew Coker and a collection of other less likely candidates will all be in the mix.“That’s a question we will have a lot better answer to in a month’s time,” Pitcher said. “The good news is we have a lot of opportunity for guys to go show what they can do.”That will be one to watch, but it sits in the background of confidence regarding the continuity of the group of five returning for the first time since Burrow arrived in Cincinnati.The offensive line has still taken shots over the course of the offseason from media members across outlets expressing concerns over protecting the star quarterback with this group.The view internally of what actually transpired over the course of last season provoked a notable response from Taylor.“There’s a lot of experience there from a communication standpoint,” he said. “That’s something that sometimes early in seasons that gets you some sacks with overall communication because you have a revolving door at a position or you have new guys at a position. Now, that excuse does not exist for us. I’m excited to see those guys play together; they finished the year really strong. Sometimes nationally, there’s a really lazy narrative that our offensive line isn’t very good because they look at years ago and some issues we had. That has not been the case for us. These guys have performed as well as any unit in the league.”• Few players have had their role discussed more in recent history than Dax Hill. The 2022 first-round pick moved from safety to nickel to outside corner over the course of four seasons, bouncing back and forth in between.With uncertainty behind starters Hill and Turner, it could have opened the idea of Hill moving back inside. That will not be the case, according to Taylor and Golden.Dax Hill is heading into his fifth season with the Bengals. (Frank Bowen IV / Imagn Images)Both made clear they view Hill as an outside corner. He played well there and the defense as a whole took a major step when he moved back out there midway through last season. That will be his spot.• The defensive rebuild and evolving cohesion will be a top storyline of camp. Golden pointed out how rare the task in front of him is given the turnover at impact spots in his rotation. He’s folding in Lawrence, Boye Mafe, Allen and Cashius Howell on the defensive line. Then Bryan Cook and Kyle Dugger at safety, along with third-rounder Tacario Davis and veteran Ja’Sir Taylor at corner.That accounts for 36 percent of his two-deep.“It’s that group together that has to come together over the next six weeks that’s going to determine our success,” Golden said. “Eight guys in an offseason is massive. That just doesn’t happen.”