Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - No surprises! Al Golden will be the Bengals' next DC

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

As expected, the Cincinnati Bengals are hiring former Bengals LB coach and Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden to replace Lou Anarumo. As Golden returns to the NFL, Jake Liscow and James Rapien... break down the pros and cons of the Bengals' approach to this hire, whether Zac Taylor has earned any credibility for putting together a coaching staff, and point out that Notre Dame fans aren't happy to be losing Golden. Plus, the Bengals are adding Jerry Montgomery to coach the defensive line, and for both Montgomery and Golden, player development will be an emphasis.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TalkspaceAs a listener of this podcast, you’ll get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to Talkspace.com/LOCKEDONNFL and enter promo code SPACE80.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelFrom the first whistle to the final drive, FanDuel makes the NFL Playoffs even more exciting! Right now, new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get THREE HUNDRED BUCKS in BONUS BETS – if you win your first bet! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 No last minute wrenches. Al Golden will be the Bengals next defensive coordinator. And the defensive staff might be coming together quickly. Let's get into it. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans. And welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:31 I'm your host, Jake Let's go. He's your host, James Rupin. And we are a lot of. Locked-on Bengals, as they have made a defensive coordinator hire. Reportedly, they've also identified their next defensive line coach. You will get into all of that news in this episode of Locked-on Bengals. And for some of you, this might be the second episode you see from us in one day. For those of you that didn't see the previous episode,
Starting point is 00:00:54 because we have posted two episodes in the same day due to this breaking news that has brought us back together this Wednesday afternoon. We did a show earlier on Wednesday with a little bit more information about Scott Peters, an update on the stadium lease negotiations. The everydayers certainly have seen that, I'm sure. Those of you who make us your first list, and welcome back to all of you, by the way. And if you're new, we'll have you covered with the rest of the Bengals hires this year.
Starting point is 00:01:18 And if Al Golden speaks to the media, sometime between now and our next show, which will be Sunday at this point, we'll be back with analysis of what Al Golden has to say at that point. But until then, this might serve as your episode for the rest of the week, until or unless we hear from Al Golden. And it is, as expected, James, the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator. One of the most fascinating things to me about it, as this news percolated into the National Zykeyes to a little bit
Starting point is 00:01:47 after the National Championship game was reported by the national reporters. Everyone who follows the Bengals has known this for a while, but is the reaction from those that cover Notre Dame closely or are tied to Notre Dame, they are upset, not mad, but sad to be losing Al Golden's defensive coordinator, a guy that seems to have really earned the love of Notre Dame. Sure. You know why? Because Al Gooden's a good football coach.
Starting point is 00:02:15 That's why. And regardless of the search, which we talked about earlier this week, we talked about on our Wednesday show, so feel free to check that out, the search and not a wide net and all of those things, and the good and bad that come with it. And I think there are pros and cons. But ultimately, what are you looking for? You're looking for a really good defensive coach that's going to get the most out of your defense.
Starting point is 00:02:38 I don't know if that's going to happen. But Notre Dame knows that he's a good coach. And Notre Dame wanted to keep him. Notre Dame wanted to see him continue to maximize their defense and help them win college football playoff games and their defense carry them against the Georgia team or carry them against Penn State when the offense really couldn't do anything for most of that first half.
Starting point is 00:03:01 The point is, the Bengals got a really good coach here. I don't know if that's going to mean it. It works. Two different things. Good coaches get fired in the NFL all the time. Good coaches don't work out all the time. But Zach Taylor told, I don't know if he told Albert Breer, but it was Zach Taylor's top guy, Albert Breer reporting,
Starting point is 00:03:24 and that fits, that fits this search. fits exactly what we've kind of known throughout this process. I think Patrick Graham really impressed them. But the moment the Bengals, and as we record this, 16 days ago, January 6th, the moment the Bengals fired Lou Anirumo, I think in Zach's head, he said, oh, I have to talk to Al Golden. I think Al Golden's going to be a real contender here, and maybe the guy. And guess what, ladies and gentlemen, they've talked.
Starting point is 00:03:56 over the past 16 days. This wasn't something that they waited to do until Monday night after the national championship game. What do you mean? What do you mean? They've talked. That's why it, and so the fit in the, the strategy, in the scheme,
Starting point is 00:04:16 and the personnel and who they're going to hire as defensive line coach, which we'll get into, and all of those things, that's what they've been doing, talking about them, making sure that it was a good fit, making sure that the front office would pay all of these things all of these thoughts so it might not have been the widest net and i don't know if it's going to work but they did get a good football coach and the whole point was they did to get a good football coach and i think whether or not al golden has success is about all of the other things that i'm sure we're going to talk about when it comes to fit the
Starting point is 00:04:47 front office and all of the up up and to play devil's advocate to those who want to be critical of the wide net and such and we talked about it We literally spent an entire episode, maybe not an entire episode, a good portion of an episode earlier this week talking about the process and why the process didn't feel good. To play devil's advocate to that, and that was an argument that we presented, right? And it's something that I believe. But the other side of that is familiarity isn't inherently bad. It just doesn't feel good. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing the wrong thing.
Starting point is 00:05:21 Sometimes that familiarity means that you have a very crystal clear vision. of what you want and you're sure about the guy that you're asking to do the job. And you drew the comparison to Dan Pitcher. We don't know if there was widespread demand for Al Golden and the NFL, the way that we know there was demand for Dan Pitcher to be an offensive coordinator elsewhere. But the way that people who fall in Notre Dame are talking about him, it wouldn't be surprising. And to get him away from Notre Dame, I think, in the first place,
Starting point is 00:05:48 is something of an achievement, even though we know that his family still had a house in Cincinnati and all of those things that they took. took to the city quite well. And the Bengals really liked him when he was a defensive coach, a linebacker's coach for the team. And he was very involved. He was the next guy. He was Lou Anna Ramos top lieutenant when they were working together in Cincinnati. So all of the theories are out there. And, you know, he's not Robert Sala. He's not Dennis Allen. He's not Patrick Graham. If any of those were your guy. And I think I made a pretty compelling case for Patrick Graham. It's probably a week ago at this point when we were talking about those two guys being the finalist, Patrick Graham,
Starting point is 00:06:28 looks like a pretty appealing candidate given the variety of guys he had worked for throughout his career, the Belichick background and all of the things you can take away from one of the legends of the game who was a brilliant defensive coach in Belichick. That doesn't necessarily mean that the Bengals are doing it wrong here because they knew out Golden, because Zach is familiar with Golden. It could just mean that he does everything the way Zach wants it to be done. And when you look at the reaction, again, from the people who have paid close attention to Notre Dame lately, the Mike Golick Jr. tweet 25 minutes before we started recording this episode, James,
Starting point is 00:07:05 hate to see him go, but appreciate everything you did from Notre Dame. That defense was aggressive as hell and always prepared, sort of like Aaron Glenn with the Lions. Guys kept getting hurt, and they never once lowered their standard. That's the kind of respect that you see for Golden, for those that fall in Notre Dame close. We've talked about his adaptability. We've talked about his ability to develop players. We've talked about how he runs that defense with great communication that was visible on the field during the national championship game, even if the defense couldn't hold up to Ohio State.
Starting point is 00:07:37 It was obvious that there was a high degree of communication on the field from Xavier Watts, who's going to be in every second round, Bengals-Bock draft from now until April and those linebackers. The communication was at a high level. They looked prepared. were just outgunned, quite frankly, in my opinion, quite often. And people will pick apart that third and 11 call, I think, from now until the beginning of the preseason, probably, when talking about this higher. But there's a lot of good with Al Golden's track record. And I think we also talked a couple of days ago about the folly of looking at just one game for any coach like
Starting point is 00:08:15 this. Sure. No doubt. They were going to lose to Ohio State. We knew it before the game. Most people that that were aware of Ohio State's talent knew it before the game. I thought they played pretty well considering the circumstances and the talent, disparity between the two teams. But it isn't about one game. It's about making sure it's the right higher at the NFL level. And it's one of those things where, yeah, he had success at Notre Dame and he's a really good coach, and these Notre Dame people are saying it.
Starting point is 00:08:44 And then the other side of it, Bengals fans see the Ohio State thing, the Ohio State game and the struggles, especially in the first half. and they're like, what is going on? Why would you hire that guy? And the reality is, none of it really matters because he's got to come in here and do the job at a high level. And we'll see if he does.
Starting point is 00:09:00 Now, Jack Taylor knows it. That's kind of where I default back to too. If this was Zach's top guy, well, Zach knows his job's on the line. Zach knows he's not surviving another defensive coordinator, another offensive line coach, another defensive line coach. He's got to get this right. And so whether it's right or not,
Starting point is 00:09:20 he had to make the best hire for him, not worry about, oh, well, this guy had head coaching experience, this guy does in, all of those things. So I think there's more when it comes to Al Golden, even though we've talked a ton about him. Now that it's done, I certainly have some questions that I wonder how, since he was so focused on Notre Dame. And they don't necessarily have to do with Zach Taylor. It has to do with the people above Zach Taylor. So we'll get to those questions and maybe some answers coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is daily fantasy the way it should be.
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Starting point is 00:10:53 but prize picks run your game i have a question about zach taylor you have some questions about zach taylor's bosses so let's let's get into those let me ask my question real quick yeah go does zach taylor have any equity to use a word that you love with coaching hires for you because this is a point i was listening to mo and and paul dainer they were talking about this a little bit talking about the process and why they weren't very concerned about the process and why they weren't very concerned about I think they're less concerned about the process than we are, or we were, because technically in the past tense now, the process is completed. The Cincinnati Bengals assistant coaches have generally been seen as quite confident outside of Jim Turner until 2024. And then a whole bunch of questions came up, mostly on the defensive side of the ball.
Starting point is 00:11:50 There had been criticisms of Luana Remo early. those went away when they made the Super Bowl run for a few years. There have been questions about Zach pretty consistently. But Brian Callahan very quickly got a head coaching job. Dan Pitcher last year, Dan Pitcher was seen as a top offensive coordinator candidate before the Bengals bent over backwards to keep him. So do you think that Zach deserves a benefit of the doubt at all when it comes to putting together a staffer is like the Jim Turner thing, just such an indictment that we can never
Starting point is 00:12:29 trust any of his hires. Well, it's twofold, right? I think one, that's a big conversation about Zach and in the direction of the team and all of those things. And so it really goes into Zach's job status. But two, the Bengals clearly feel like that they clearly believe in Zach and they saw the issues. And part of that does tie to the front office. This wasn't just co-es. This wasn't just coaching. Like Luanarumo isn't in Cincinnati anymore just because of his coaching. To be clear, it's his inability to either trust, help develop, get guys on the field that they're clearly using high resources on. Like it's twofold here. It's not just, oh, well, they were bad on defense at 2024. There's more to it. And so I think the front office saw those issues too, and they also
Starting point is 00:13:24 believe in Zach and Joe Burrow believes in Zach. And so that does give him equity. Whether it's fair or not, he never should have hired Jim Turner. It was ridiculous. Should have fired Jim Turner after year one and gotten Bill Callahan. Didn't do that. And it nearly cost him his job. And then he goes to the AFC championship game back to back years. And he did build up some of that equity, I think. I think the Bengals would love a year from now, because Zach has two years left on his deal, I'd love a year from now to extend Zach Taylor. I think that's, You make the moves you made this offseason because you believe Zach is the guy and that some of the guys on staff need to be tweaked.
Starting point is 00:14:04 Some of the coaches on staff need to be tweaked. We'll see if it's the right decision, but that is the decision they went. That's the route they went. And I think the interesting thing to me, when you talk about big picture, if you're committing all this money to Al Golden, and I would have. assume he's getting a four-year $10 million deal. Like, I think it's a real deal. He's not coming here for two years, Jake, right?
Starting point is 00:14:31 I don't think he's signing a two-year deal to be the Bengals defensive coordinator. I would imagine his contract lasts longer than Zach. He was making on average $2.5 million with Notre Dame. I assume he's not taking a pay cut. Maybe he did. Maybe he's taking a half a million dollar pay cut. He's making $2 million. That's still more than Lou.
Starting point is 00:14:49 Could be two years, $5 million, too. Could be something like that. Two years, 5.25 million. You'll leave in Notre Dame for that. Maybe to get back to your family. Maybe it's the family card. Back to the NFL, maybe. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:01 Maybe. Okay. Maybe. But you're still committing big time money at defensive coordinator. And so let's say it's two years for Al Golden. The point will still remain the same. Does today in this decision mean that Zach Taylor's definitely going to be the head coach of the Bengals for the next two years? I think that's an interesting, because I think the pressure is ratcheted up.
Starting point is 00:15:26 I also think that it's kind of hard to pay eight coaches versus maybe one coach or two coaches. Yeah, I mean, I think it's sink or swim time, right? For Zach? So you think it's this year, it's make a break. I just, I don't know if we have the answer, but I think that you could argue that he gets two years now because of how. I don't know. I don't know if this hire buys him more time. I think that there's maybe a little bit of grace extended
Starting point is 00:15:55 because they have to rebuild the staff. But I think the reaction to move on from the coaches they moved on from was this year wasn't good enough when we have Joe Burrow a quarterback. You need to get it right now. And I don't think that there should be a lot of leash for that. I think you look at the Eagles, the bounce back for the Eagles this year, which is something that we talked about quite a few times where the Eagles fired everybody but their head coach.
Starting point is 00:16:20 essentially and rebuilt it. And they've had immediate results. And the Eagles spend differently than the Bengals do. They draft differently than the Bengals do. All those things, 100% true, better than the Bengals do, not necessarily just differently. But I think that there is some element of needing instant results here. The Bengals let Zach hire the guys he wanted,
Starting point is 00:16:45 which I think you have to do. If you're going to keep Zach as head coach, that means that you have to give him license to make the decisions that he thinks are best for the team. That's part of the job responsibility when you have a head coach, and if you're choosing to keep him, that means you have to keep that job responsibility with him. But if it doesn't work,
Starting point is 00:17:04 there's degrees here, right? And we'll have to see how the season goes. But if the defense is bad again and can't keep multiple multi-score leads in second halves to close out games and can't get a rush after the passer outside of Trey Hendrickson and isn't developing players, isn't playing young players, is not taking guys out of the lineup at the front off.
Starting point is 00:17:29 If that disconnect is still there, then nothing is improved. I think there does need to be significant improvement. I think they need to be back in the playoffs. And that's the minimum. If they're not back in the playoffs next year, yeah, I think that that's got to be the standard for accountability if we're talking about holding these coaches and the staff accountable. Yeah, and so if I'm out golden, let's just say that's the case. If I'm out golden,
Starting point is 00:17:55 I would have pushed for a three or four year deal and you have a lot of leverage, unless you just desperately wanted to get back to Cincinnati. And maybe that's the case. Maybe he did. Maybe he wanted to get back. Obviously he has his house here, loves it here. There's a lot to like. He dominated in Notre Dame was really, really good for three years. And it's like, all right, it's time to get back to the NFL and see what I can do. I also think that there's the appeal of, man, Luana Rumo was this close. And I'm really, really close to getting that Arizona Cardinals job. And so there's that element too.
Starting point is 00:18:28 But yeah, I think that the Zach Taylor, did he have equity? Do I trust him to make the right higher? I don't know. We haven't really seen it. I think Zach Taylor today is much different than Zach Taylor of 2019. I wouldn't have. And if you really go back in the audio only locked on Bengals files, like way back. I wasn't like all in on hiring a 30, what would he have been four year old Zach Taylor?
Starting point is 00:18:53 Like it's just because because you know in by the way he went 625 and one in the first two years. It's tough. It's hard. But I think he's a much better coach now. And we'll see if he's got the connections and an evaluator and an evaluation of coaches. Who knows? Maybe Al Golden is the perfect fit. He just wants to keep coaching Xavier Watts in the NFL.
Starting point is 00:19:14 Ex-Zavier. That's right. I think it's actually ex-Zavier. For him, yeah. Yeah, versus Xavier Musketeers. Yeah, Xavier. That makes sense. By the way, don't blame him.
Starting point is 00:19:24 Xavier Watts is a heck of a player. But let's get to the front office stuff. We also have the defensive line coach to get to, but the front office stuff. Because I do think it's fair to say if Al Golden isn't on the same page with the front office, this hire could go in the wrong direction, much like. Lou Anirumo quickly went in the wrong direction and is now the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator. Congrats to Lou, by the way. I'm not sure we did that. But we'll get to the front office and how it relates to Al Golden coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Game Time. The Bengals in Hamilton County, they're announcing some huge concert on Thursday for this summer.
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Starting point is 00:21:14 Locked on NFL for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. Jake, a big reason why Luana Rumo is no longer in Cincinnati is when the front office goes and gets Dax Hill and you could argue at times. And I think there are people in the building that think, oh, well, he was our best nickel, our best safety, and our best corner at different times throughout his three-year career. And you're not getting him on the field or you can't figure out exactly where to play him as a rookie to get him reps. and it just feels like his growth is stunned.
Starting point is 00:21:49 That's an issue. And then it's not just him. It's Jordan Battle versus Von Bell. It's Sam Hubbard versus Miles Murphy and Joseph Osai. It's all of these different guys that the Bengals front office, I think, felt like could contribute, weren't contributing or didn't get on the field early enough to contribute. That to me shows that there was some kind of fit vision issue with the front office versus Luanerumo. And I do think that there was a very real situation where Lou's like,
Starting point is 00:22:21 all right, well, kind of like we were at the trade deadline. And I'm not saying he did this at the trade deadline. But it was like, all right, well, can you get some pass rush out? And I think the front office said, hey, we got you number 99 with the 28th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. Can you find a way to get him on the field? And so the fit with Al Golden in the vision moving forward. I do think that that's a big part, whether it's the current roster in these young guys or whoever they draft,
Starting point is 00:22:47 they're going to take probably multiple defensive players on day one, day two, early day three in the NFL draft this year. Again, not for the first time, not that they haven't ever spent resources on the defense. That's not what James is saying. Just to be clear, we know that they have spent resources there. And a lot of people are going to say it's the front office's fault, lose a scapegoat, maybe. I mean, we can't say that that's entirely wrong. but there is definitely an emphasis on being in sync with the front office, with this hire, as you're pointing out,
Starting point is 00:23:23 and or probably and being able to develop the young players with the assets that the front office is spending. And you pointed out many examples there. We saw some development from some players. They kept a couple of coaches, at least for now. I haven't checked the Bengals website today, where they're very fast about updating their coaching roster. And it doesn't look like the defensive roster has been updated yet as of the time of recording James.
Starting point is 00:23:52 So for now it looks like Charles Berks and Jordan Covacks are still expected to return as the secondary coaches. I think they will. Yes, confident in that. And Ronnie Regula, who worked with Al Golden and Notre Dame as a defensive assistant is still listed on the Bengals coaching roster. So with those guys, you need to be able to develop the rest of the team. You need to be able to trust your linebacker, the way you trust your linebacker at Notre Dame to make adjustments on the field and communicate them at a high level. Trust your safety.
Starting point is 00:24:24 And maybe this goes to Javon Holland, a potential free agent acquisition. Or maybe it is Xavier Watts, who will, like I said, be in every second round mock from now until eternity if he's available for those mock drafts. that level of communication in your secondary is again going to be a topic this year for this Bengals defense. It was harped on last year. But more than that, need to see development from the young players. Because as we've discussed, James, they have spent all of these resources in early draft picks. And they have not gotten returns. Now, is that the draft picks in the case of like Zach Carter? Certainly yes. But in the case of some of these other players, they look like fine prospects.
Starting point is 00:25:07 didn't look like massive reaches, even if they weren't necessarily our favorite picks in some cases. They looked like players that could develop. And I think that also ties in talking about Miles Murphy specifically with the Bengals new defensive line coach. If you want to pivot there, let's wrap up on Al Golden before we talk about that. Yeah. Let's bring up one more thing. It's not just Miles Murphy and Dax Hill, right, or Jordan Battle because there are people that think Daxhill is a bust or Miles is a bust and they're out on them. Right. How about Joseph Osai playing in the preseason needing to develop in getting hurt last year, right? After coming on in year two, missed his rookie year and having him out there. Like there's just so many things like that where something didn't mesh the way it should have mesh. Like it just didn't feel right. It felt weird then and Osai was buried. And then by the way, he came on this year towards the end of the year. But now Miles Murphy feels like, ah, no.
Starting point is 00:26:04 acts as a second year player, like, what is going on? And so that just needs to be short up. It doesn't mean that the front office is perfect. But you want your ownership and your front office and lockstep, especially when you're banking on these coaches to do their part in evaluation. It's not like the coaches are locked out of the room and draft room. They have their input as well. And so you just have to get more out of what you have as well. You do. It doesn't mean that they've always gotten it right, but your defense can't fall to and just be awful because Jesse Bates is no longer in town. You still have to figure it out.
Starting point is 00:26:41 So it's both. It's both things. And in this front office, we'll have plenty of time to talk about that. But hopefully Al Golden sees the vision as well. And part of that vision is the new defensive line coach, is someone has been a defensive line coach, a trench coach, specifically since 2007. So you're talking basically 20 years. in the trenches.
Starting point is 00:27:05 And yeah, I think that it's going to be interesting to see. Go ahead with what you. I know you've done a ton of research on. And Paul Dana Jr. was the one to report this, by the way. I wouldn't say it's a ton of research. We've known about it for about 50 minutes. And we've been talking for 27 of those minutes. So I've done some cursory research.
Starting point is 00:27:23 Some cursory research. He was with Green Bay for the lion's share of his NFL career. Jerry Montgomery, by the way. I didn't say his name. Jerry Montgomery. Yes. Yeah. So he comes from New England, which is the first fit here.
Starting point is 00:27:37 And Bengals fans are going to see that they have hired two assistant coaches from the worst team in football. Arguably, they obviously don't have the first overall pick. You look at the New England overall pass rush grade. If you go to pro football focus, they were fourth last in the NFL in pass rush grade. And when you look at the individual pass rush players that had a lot of snaps for them in the past rush. It's really like Keon White and nobody. They didn't get anything out of Anthony Jennings. They didn't get much out of Dietrich Wise.
Starting point is 00:28:09 They didn't get much out of Daniel Equale, Davin Godchow. They didn't get much out of these players that were playing a lot for them and rushing the passer a lot. So it's like Yonika and Gakwe, a midseason acquisition who, I think he's just cooked. But go back to Green Bay and Kenny Clark loved, loved Jerry Montgomery. and Rishon Gary, a player that we have often discussed as a potential career path for Miles Murphy in terms of raw player who needs development to break out, broke out when Jerry Montgomery was in Green Bay.
Starting point is 00:28:45 It was only one year in New England with Jonathan Mayo before he was apparently not retained for the next regime in New England. And so the things that I would say are, one, you don't totally. dismiss a lack of production in a previous stop. And it's not just pass rush, obviously, when you're talking about a defensive front. It's not that simple, right? And New England wasn't very good at anything on defense. A couple of those players on the defensive front were fine run defenders. But when you look at the trench coaches they've brought in from New England, New England did not get good results out of their trenches last year. Part of that is a talent issue, but you can't say
Starting point is 00:29:30 that it's not a coaching issue at all, we don't know, right? But it doesn't mean that it was the coach's fault either. And so with this particular coach, with Jerry Montgomery, much longer track record than with Scott Peters on the other side of the ball on the offensive line, where you can look back to Green Bay and see that, okay, he did help them develop a few pieces there. And that defensive line, when he was around in Green Bay, had a few magnificent years when he was in charge. And so at least he has those skins on the wall where he's had very productive units in the past. Now, whether that translates to Cincinnati, we'll see. There certainly needs to be a focus on development between Montgomery and hopefully that
Starting point is 00:30:12 Roshan Gary career path and Al Golden and bringing that college experience where he's getting guys to break out midseason, true freshman playing on a national championship defense team. That needs to be an emphasis for all of these guys. but interesting to see one of these key defensive position coach hires happening as al golden is announced essentially yeah i mean you're you're hoping that by midseason next year we're calling miles murphy miles gary like you want him to go on that rashon gary path you want him to break out in year three and and you're bringing in the coach that that helped that now is it going to work i'm not sure the NFL does this man is they like i walked into my gym today and by the way uh multiple
Starting point is 00:31:04 bangles fans are my gym anyway the guy working the front desk was like hey do you guess who was in yesterday he was marrying hobby and guess what marian hobby is waiting to do go on the tour and go try to get a gig somewhere that's what coaches do and so jerry montgomery hopefully he's the right fit Hopefully he can get the most out of these young guys, and there are a lot of young guys that they're banking on in that defensive line room. They aren't going to add six defensive linemen this offseason. They need to get more about what they have. It is just it.
Starting point is 00:31:35 They spent the first rounder on Miles Murphy, a second rounder last year, and a third rounder last year on Jenkins and McKinley Jackson. And so when you do that, you need to get something out of them. And so we'll see if Chris Jenkins can step up and McKinley Jackson could step up and Miles Murphy could step up. They think that Montgomery can get the most out of him. So we'll see Jerry Montgomery. He's already got some clay to work with and we'll see if he'll be able to maximize it. Talk about pressure for a positional coach coming in.
Starting point is 00:32:05 There's so much scrutiny. I mean, for Scott Peters too, so much scrutiny on the offensive guard position, Amarius Mids development, defense. That's an episode. That's an episode, I think, who has more pressure on them. Because there's a lot. Both sides. Don't envy that pressure, but that's why these guys do that job.
Starting point is 00:32:25 And I am. We do this one. Sitting in my living room talking about the Bengals. That's going to do it for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. We'll be back if we hear from El Golden. Otherwise, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to this episode. Ho day.
Starting point is 00:32:40 And have a good.

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