Bengals 'early in the process,' haven't made any draft decisions

Cincinnati Bengals executive Duke Tobin wouldn't confirm reports Monday that the team has already decided not to trade the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

"I don't know that any decision has been made for what we're going to do in April," said Tobin, who serves as director of player personnel, according to Bengals reporter Geoff Hobson. "We're early in the process. We certainly haven't had any meetings to determine that at this point. Those will be meetings we'll have as we go through the process."

Tobin's comments come on the heels of an ESPN report that claimed the franchise has no intention of dealing its top pick. The Bengals are widely expected to target LSU quarterback Joe Burrow with the No. 1 pick, assuming they keep it.

"He had a wonderful year, a year very few people have had," Tobin said of Burrow, who led LSU to a national championship. "And their team had the same success. The way the coaches put the group together, the schematics that they had, the culture that they built all came together and the players were extremely well-coached and with that comes success. When you start winning close games, you build camaraderie as a group and when you watched them you could really see it building and they became a complete team."

Cincinnati drafted quarterback Carson Palmer out of USC the last time it owned the No. 1 selection.