With an eye to division play, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has tapped offensive line guru Bill Callahan disciple Scott Peters to coach his line.
Peters returns to the AFC North after one season as the Patriots offensive line coach. Before he went to New England last season, Peters served the four previous years as Callahan's assistant offensive line coach for a Browns team that finished no lower than 12th in NFL rushing.
Peters is bringing Michael McCarthy, his assistant in Foxborough, as well as seven NFL seasons as a player.
"It's my favorite division in all the NFL with the competitive nature and the rivalries," said Peters Monday during his first day on the job at Paycor Stadium. "I'm excited to be here in Cincinnati and doing it again from a different perspective.
"There's good continuity in the division, so you know the opponents well. There is familiarity with that and that's important."
Peters, 46, a former NFL guard and center and one-time trainer of UFC champions Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, never played in the AFC North during stints with five teams. But he arrives with plenty of Bengals ties.
Callahan, the father of former Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, was Taylor's head coach at Nebraska. Peters was a burgeoning guru himself who founded the Tip of the Spear academy that teaches players to rely on hands and shoulders rather than the head when he was recommended to Callahan by former Bengals offensive line coach Jim McNally.
Callahan brought Peters to the Commanders as a consultant when he was coaching the Washington offensive line and then took him to Cleveland as his assistant.
"He painted a model for me as a coach," Peters said. "Just the way he approached everything. It's thought out so well. The details are there. The way you attack an opponent, the way you prepare your players. From soup to nuts. That's why he has such a great reputation. The ability to spend every day with him for four years was a great mentorship."
While they were with the Browns, one guard, Wyatt Teller went to three straight Pro Bowls. The other Pro Bowl guard, Joel Bitonio, made the jump to back-to-back All-Pro first teams in 2021 and 2022 under Callahan and Peters.
During their years in Cleveland, the Browns finished third, fourth, sixth and 12th in NFL rushing, and Peters is looking to ship the same mentality down I-71.
"I want to bring a level of toughness and the mindset of we're protectors," Peters said. "Protectors do it with more than just the shield. We do it with the sword. Giving guys tools, giving guys the mentality, enhancing some things to equip them for different types of opponents.
"There are great rushers in this league, so it's helping the protection unit along with bringing something in the run game in terms of being able to dominate people. Pound them. Put the defense off balance."
McCarthy, 38, joined Peters in New England after serving four years as the offensive line coach at Brown. A Staten Island native who played linebacker and long-snapped at Long Island's Widener University, McCarthy began his career as a scouting/video intern with the Jets before quality control stops in Cleveland in 2015 and in Detroit from 2016-17.
