By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

For the second time in three days, the Bengals increased the size of their player personnel department, giving them five full-time employees and two consultants.The team announced Wednesday it had hired John Garrett as a full-time scout. Two days earlier, Bill Tobin was hired by Cincinnati as a scouting consultant.

They join vice presidents Pete Brown and Paul Brown, director of football operations Jim Lippincott, director of player personnel Duke Tobin and scouting consultant John Cooper.

"We continue to go forward," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "This is all part of the push to progress."

Lewis said the hirings are done for the time being.

"I can't tell you what we're going to do (as far as future hiring)," Lewis said. "But it would probably be difficult to do any more before the draft."

Lewis said upon his hiring that scouts would be added to ease the scouting burden on the coaching staff.

Garrett and Tobin are on board in time to work the scouting combine (Feb.18-24) and draft (April26-27).

Garrett, 37, was Bengals tight ends coach the past two seasons. He played wide receiver for the club in 1989.

"John has a great eye for talent," Lewis said. "He's very thorough and very committed to the job."