Narrowly missing out on a playoff berth after entering the season with Super Bowl aspirations, the Bengals fired longtime defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo on Black Monday. They are moving on a replacement search quickly.
Cincinnati is look to two candidates who came off worse seasons, in eyeing the Las Vegas and New England staffs. Raiders DC Patrick Graham and Patriots DC DeMarcus Covington received interview slips from the Bengals, per NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero, and both candidates intend to interview.
Graham is set to meet about the position today, while Pelissero notes Covington’s meeting is on tap Wednesday. Teams can block coordinator lateral moves, so long as they do not involve a non-play-calling coordinator receiving that chance elsewhere, but Graham is no longer under contract with the Raiders. He is free to interview. With the Patriots again in transition, they have given Covington permission to make this potential lateral move.
The Patriots made a quick change, firing Jerod Mayo after previously promoting him without conducting a search. With Mayo having promoted Covington from D-line coach, this leaves the 2024 Pats DC on shaky ground. Featuring this century’s most dependable NFL unit (on the whole) during Bill Belichick‘s 24-year run in charge, New England’s defense dropped to 22nd in scoring and yardage under Covington. This came despite Christian Gonzalez‘s return to full strength. The Patriots did trade Matt Judon just before the season, however.
After the Raiders snapped a streak of finishing outside the NFL’s top half in scoring defense for more than 20 years — via the Graham-led unit’s ninth-place result in 2023 — the team closed in the 25th spot this season. That said, Las Vegas’ offense did not give Graham too much to work with; the Raiders ranked 15th in total defense for the second straight year.
Graham, 45, has much more experience — as he has been the DC with the Giants and Dolphins previously — and is on the Jaguars’ HC interview list. Both Graham and Covington, 35, are ex-Belichick assistants; though, they did not overlap in New England. The Bengals will see what each brings to the table soon.
If Rex Ryan is serious about getting back into the league, then he needs to show interest in a job like this where he can prove he’s still got it first, otherwise he should stop running his mouth about coaching and just stay on TV.
That makes sense, but at the same time, if you’re a head coach, do you really want Ryan around making himself the center of attention? I’ve also heard someone with league experience (maybe Nate Tice?) say that one reason Ryan’s teams struggled to develop quarterbacks is that he would spend practices having his defenses working on things like exotic blitz packages, so his quarterbacks were under duress constantly and not getting enough grounding in facing more normal defenses.
That’s interesting, I had no idea. I also find it unbelievably stupid but totally believable because it sounds like something Rex would do. In Cincy, at least the QB is already developed, but you’re right that he could certainly be perceived as a distraction.
I doubt they’d pay enough for him or that he would go somewhere the head coach is on even a warm seat, but they could really use someone like Saleh. It could be a drafting problem, but they’ve had a lousy run of developing defensive talent. A strength of Saleh’s.
Oh, yeah, I certainly don’t think it’s happening, nor do I feel like they’ll express interest in him. More so, I just think if he is serious about being a head coach again, then he needs to put his money where his mouth is and signal that he’s willing to work his way back up to that position. Otherwise I want him to shut up.
But given Woody Johnson’s ineptitude, I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t have to do any of that because Woody will just give him the Jets job.