The Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator job has been open for more than two weeks now, but there hasn’t been much movement on a possible hiring and now we know why: The team was waiting for Notre Dame to finish its season.
According to NFL.com, the Bengals are planning to talk to Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden this week about possibly taking the same job in Cincinnati. Bengals coach Zac Taylor is extremely familiar with Golden, who served as the Bengals linebackers coach for two seasons (2020-21) before taking the defensive coordinator job at Notre Dame.
The Bengals defensive coordinator job came open on Jan. 6 when Taylor made the decision to fire Lou Anarumo. In the 14 days since then, the Bengals had only conducted two known interviews and both of those came in the first 48 hours of their search. The first one came on Jan. 7 with former Raiders defensive coordiantor Patrick Graham and the second one came on Jan. 8 with Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington.
After the Covington interview, the search went quiet, which led to a lot of speculation that the Bengals were waiting on their ideal candidate to become available, and as it turns out, that was the case. With Notre Dame playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, Golden wasn’t going to be available for a possible interview with the Bengals until after the game, which the Fighting Irish ended up losing to Ohio State, 34-23.
Golden was actually asked about the Bengals job on Jan. 18, but he didn’t have much to say.
“It’s humbling that your name is mentioned because of team success. But, not the time or place,” Golden said, via Fox 19.
During the 2024 season, Notre Dame surrendered just 14.3 points per game, which ranked second in the nation. The Fighting Irish also ranked in the top 10 in total yards surrendered, giving up an average of just 298.3 yards per game.
At this point, it seem like a a near lock that Golden will get the Cincinnati job. If the Bengals were unsure about what Golden was going to do, they likely would have interviewed more candidates, but instead, they decided to wait on him, which makes them seem pretty confident that he’ll end up being their guy.
The 55-year-old Golden left the Bengals for Notre Dame after Cincinnati’s Super Bowl LVI loss, and now, it’s looking like he’s going to leave the Fighting Irish to head back to Cincinnati after a tough championship game loss with Notre Dame.
Although the Bengals haven’t filled their defensive coordinator job yet, the guy they fired has already found a new landing spot. Anarumo was hired by the Colts on Monday to serve as the new defensive coordinator in Indianapolis.
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Author: John Breech
January 21, 2025 | 10:15 am
