Cincinnati Bengals: Coaching staff moves make little difference

The Cincinnati Bengals have made some recent changes on their coaching staff, but these moves likely won’t change much in 2018.

The Cincinnati Bengals have long been a team that refuses to make any major changes during the season. They’ve stuck with stale coaching jobs for years beyond their expiration date, allowing whole sections of their roster to fester with problems and become unusable, all because the owner has yet again decided to live up to his cheap reputation.

This week is a stark contrast to what we’ve come to expect. Not one, but two major changes have been made to the Cincinnati coaching staff since their last game: Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was fired, and Hue Jackson has been brought on as a special assistant to head coach Marvin Lewis.

Here are some thoughts on those moves.

Austin Had To Go, But His Departure Fixes Nothing

This defense was supposed to take a jump forward with Austin at the helm. They entered the year with a bunch of high-end and youthful talents along the defensive line, a star linebacker in the early stages of a contract extension, a possible shutdown corner and a rookie safety who was so good they couldn’t wait to cut a long-term starter in the preseason.

That never came to fruition. None of the expected strengths never reached the heights they were supposed to, and the areas of issue for the unit have started badly and descended into chaos.

Geno Atkins aside, there isn’t anyone on the defensive line who hasn’t been inconsistent at best, and two of the better young players from the group were lost for the year due to injury. William Jackson III hasn’t been nearly as good as he was last season, while Vontaze Burfict has been downright awful this year (when he’s been available).

Everything came to a head the past three games, where Cincinnati let up 500+ yards to each of Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and New Orleans. In two of those games, Cincinnati found themselves down early and out of it by halftime; in the other, they gave up a huge lead and needed a last-ditch offensive drive to stave off an embarrassing defeat. They gave up 133 total points across those contests.

Things got so bad that something had to change, even for a team which avoids that word like the plague, and the simplest move to make in that situation is to get rid of an assistant coach. That’s why Austin had to go, but don’t think this change fixes anything now that Lewis is heading the unit.

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Way back in his pre-Bengals days, Lewis was once a highly-touted defensive coordinator with Baltimore. Cincinnati’s head coach hasn’t handled coordinator duties since before his Cincinnati days, however (2002, to be exact), so you can’t reasonably expect him to all of a sudden show that he’s the guy with the answers at that spot when the available talent isn’t exactly inspiring.

That group is too injured and lacking in talent — especially along the back seven — that there’s little anyone can do to fix it at this point besides hoping for some injury luck and for the guys in place to play better.

Jackson Won’t Make Things Better, Either

Jackson’s addition isn’t supposed to be a major factor in any direction, and it likely won’t be. As a special assistant, he’s essentially just giving Lewis another face he trusts and can lean on while he picks up the extra duties of leading his defense.

As long as Jackson keeps his hands off things, I don’t see any reason to worry about it. If he begins doing more than just adding an extra voice of advice for his friend though — such as taking on actual coaching responsibilities — that is where some worry should arise.

Of course, it is hard for things to get much worse. This defense already is on course to give up the most passing yards in the history of the game! Can Jackson really do anything to make that worse? Yes, he actually can. Remember that until a few weeks ago, it was Jackson who was in charge of a pathetic team in Cleveland which won three games under his 2.5-year watch.

Cincinnati’s Record Should Improve Regardless

At the end of the day, the changes made won’t make much of a difference in terms of Cincinnati’s record for the season.

This roster lacks too much talent to beat the best teams in the league, so games against Pittsburgh and Los Angeles wouldn’t be wins without a ton of luck rolling Cincinnati’s way regardless of the person coordinating the defense. The rest of their games are eminently winnable even if the defense doesn’t show up (albeit it’ll help if they don’t allow 500+ yards anymore).

If things break as expected based on their opponents, 9-7 or 10-6 shouldn’t be difficult. Besides playing Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, the Bengals play Baltimore, Oakland, Denver, and Cleveland (twice). Even with a depleted defense in flux and an offense missing A.J. Green for multiple weeks there shouldn’t be many losses remaining.

If they do in fact go over .500 — and even if they make the playoffs — they would do well to not fall prey to believing their problems are fixed. This team shouldn’t be in the postseason, and would almost certainly be ousted in yet another sad first round exit. Regardless of the final record for this team, at the end of this season the franchise must delve deep into their issues and determine how to improve the deep-seated issues and talent deficiencies currently ingrained here — most of all determining if the endlessly-tenured Lewis will actually be shown the door.