The conventional wisdom has been the Bengals coaching staff is staying intact despite the 6-9-1 record and confirmation came Friday with a CBS Sports.com report that the Bengals denied persmission for defensive coordinator Paul Guenther to re-join old friend Jay Gruden in Washington in the same job.
It's far from a surprise. The Bengals love stability and as recently as two years ago they denied secondary coach Vance Joseph an interview for the Broncos defensive coordinator job. With Joseph reported as the frontrunner for the Broncos head coaching job, the Bengals' Marvin Lewis stands to welcome his fourth assistant coach to the NFL head coaching fraternity, joining Gruden, Hue Jackson in Cleveland, and Mike Zimmer in Minnesota.
After a slow start in Guenther's third season, the Bengals held foes to less than 20 points in six of the last seven games and gave up fewer points than anybody but New England over the second half of the season. Since Guenther took over for Mike Zimmer in 2014 the Bengals lead the NFL in interceptions with 58 and have allowed the fourth fewest points.
