If you're trying to get a bead on the Bengals' new defensive coordinator, maybe check out those coaches with AFC North ties as head coach Zac Taylor searches for Lou Anarumo's successor.
"I think you've got to understand our division that we play in," said Tayor Monday as he ran through some of the key requirements he seeks in candidates. "You're going to play six (division games) a year. That's going to dictate, really, where you end up at the end of the season.
"I think this division is different. I think when people come and they play all four teams in this division, they feel that immediately. You're certainly (going to) need a coordinator who has an understanding of that. There's plenty of the guys in the league that have been around the block, that have done that, and I'll go through the process and find the right one."
On a day he started his seventh season as the Bengals head man, Taylor guaranteed the biggest staff change of his career when the club parted ways with Anarumo, offensive line coach/run game coordinator Frank Pollack, defensive line coach Marion Hobby and linebackers coach James Bettcher.
Taylor said the moves were his decisions in the wake of his club missing the playoffs for the second straight year and for the first time when Pro Bowl quarterback Joe Burrow played every game.
"Just as I evaluate everything within the organization, I just felt like we needed to make a change there," Taylor said. "It's as simple as that. We'll start that process immediately evaluating where we need to go and who we want to bring in to take us to the next level.
"I can't tell you much I appreciate what those guys did and they worked hard every single day and they're great football coaches and will land on their feet very quickly."
Besides the state of his defense, Taylor hit on other offseason topics and didn't shy away from his own self-evaluation:
_The slow starts. Taylor said he'll examine why since the Super Bowl season of 2021 they are 0-6 in the first two weeks of the season.
"You spend time over the next two months, as we're going through personnel, really evaluating what I'm going do over the course of April, May, June and into training camp," Taylor said. "There will be a lot of time to evaluate all of that. "
_The Bengals led the league in passing offense and set the franchise record with 472 points, but did it with the 30th-ranked running game. In the wake of Pollack's departure, he was asked how he sees the marriage of the run and pass.
"I think that we're always willing to evolve everything, the level of our passing game, the level of our run game," Taylor said. "I'm proud of the way that we put the ball in the ball in the end zone, and so oftentimes I don't care what it looks like, I don't care how we get there, as long as we get in. But with that being said, I think we'll continue to improve in both areas."
_His self-evaluation looking back on a season with seven losses by seven points or fewer with one in overtime and three others in the last 61 seconds.
"I'll certainly look back over those games that we lost and some of the moments where I need to do a better job of taking control of the game and making sure our team took control of the game in those late moments where you lost games that you were a play or two away," Taylor said. "That's one of the things that I've got to do better. Those aren't things you can run from when you're in my shoes. Those are things you've got to address head on and I've never had an issue doing that."
_Taylor said the hope organization-wide is to get a long-term deal for Triple Crown wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, as well as retaining 10-touchdown receiver Tee Higgins.
"We are a lock step in how we communicate every week of the season, every week of the offseason, and so those are conversations we'll have," Taylor said of the front office. "We've got a lot of great players, and Tee is one of them, certainly, and I'm very hopeful that'll work out to where we are able to get him back.
"But there's certainly a process we're going to have to undergo with a lot of players on our team, and I can promise you, we'll be, we'll be in unison with whatever those decisions are, and that's a process we'll start now, you know, through the month of January and February, and talking through every player on a roster and how it all fits."
Anarumo is the only defensive coordinator Taylor has had here, and his units played a prominent role in the Bengals going to two straight AFC title games while allowing 18.8 points per game in seven postseason appearances.
But Taylor sounds as if he has fewer designs on the overall AFC than the AFC North, where the Bengals have gone 13-23 since 2019 while allowing 366 yards and 25.8 points per division game.
That's over the same stretch Cleveland has gone 17-19 allowing 328 yards and 23.4 points per North game, Baltimore 20-16 at 319 yards and 20.5, and Pittsburgh 22-14 at 314 and 18.8.
"I don't take this lightly; put a lot of thought into it," Taylor said. "It's not an easy day for any of us. I just felt like we need to perform better as a football team. It's not in any specific area. I think we've got to be better in all three phases of our team and these are the decisions I made today and we'll work to be better."
Taylor's players are on the same page when it comes to getting off to better starts. Since Dec. 19, 2021, the Bengals are 13-1 in December and January regular-season games quarterbacked by Burrow with numbers ballooned by their five-game winning streak to end this season to turn a 4-8 season into 9-8.
There have been some extenuating circumstances (rehab, injury), but the Bengals are 7-10-1 under Burrow in September.
Taylor has historically used his starters sparingly in preseason games, but left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. says it has nothing to do with playing in preseason or even the regimens of spring ball and training camp.
The game that seems to stick in Brown's craw is the 2024 opener, a game at Paycor Stadium where the Bengals lost the debut of Patriots rookie head coach Jerod Mayo as New England began a 4-13 season that ended with Mayo's firing.
"It's just a mindset. Understanding when you go out there against New England, we're 4-8 already. We have to go out and earn the right," Brown said. "These last two years mentally, we haven't been in that state of mind where your backs are against the wall in December and November, and we have to fight for a chance to get to where we want to get. The mindset, the fight that's just underneath your ass, needs to be there in July, June, August. All the way through."
Brown was down about Pollack, finishing the fourth season of his second stint with the Bengals. Brown, who went to the first of his four Pro Bowls with the Ravens and won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs, has seen plenty. So the fact Pollack was gone 48 hours after his guys prevented Steelers' Hall of Fame disruptor T.J. Watt from appearing on the stat sheet, elicited a mere eyebrow raise.
Until Brown broke two bones in his leg in mid-October and missed six of seven games, everyone was saying he was playing the best ball of his career. After gutting it out and playing all 164 snaps of the last two games, Brown said he has a lot to owe Pollack.
"I was off to a great start. Especially in pass protection," said Brown, who says he doesn't need offseason surgery. "I made such a huge leap, which is very rare from years six to seven. Frank had a very large impact on me and helped me out in my career so much.
"It's sad. He had such a great passion for us as players, for coaching the game of football. It's the NFL, so it's something that happens. I've been traded in an offseason. I've been franchise-tagged and I've been told I was going to be franchised-tagged and I wasn't. So I really can't use the word surprise.
Rookie right tackle Amarius Mims can. Mims knows Pollack lobbied for him at No 18 before the draft even though he had six starts at Georgia.
"I truly had a great relationship with him," Mims said. "He's the guy that stood on the table for me. He helped me get drafted here. Just to see that he's gone in my short term here … That guy meant a lot to me. All he's done is pour into me and coach me as hard as possible.
"I wish him the best."
