Eight NFL head coaching vacancies were created in the month of January, and all eight have been filled by the first morning of February.



The Cincinnati Bengals supplied one of the new hires in Brian Callahan, the new head coach for the Tennessee Titans, whom they'll also face sometime during the 2024 regular season.

Callahan is not the only new hire set to play Cincinnati next season. Six of the league's eight new head coaches will be on the Bengals' schedule, which is the most out of any team. That's six teams in which there is no prior history or tape to look back on beforehand. Six teams with brand new identities, schemes, and cultures.



Here are the six that will be on the opposite sideline from Zac Taylor in 2024:

New Head Coaches Bengals Will Face Next Season

Antonio Pierce, Las Vegas Raiders

Pierce became the rare interim head coach that earned the job after the season concluded. He had ample support from inside the locker room, notably Pro Bowl edge defender Maxx Crosby, after leading the Raiders to an impressive 5-4 record to close out the 2023 season. The Bengals will host the Raiders next season as they’ll face the entire AFC West.

Brian Callahan, Tennessee Titans

Callahan needs no introduction around these parts. He was the Bengals’ offensive coordinator for the past five years, and is now filling the pretty big shoes Mike Vrabel left behind. Callahan is set to call plays for the first time in his NFL coaching career and will have former Baltimore Ravens defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson running the defense. Cincinnati will travel to Nashville for a third straight season in 2024.

Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders

The last of the eight hires made this year, Quinn becomes a head coach for the second time in his career after three successful seasons leading the Dallas Cowboys’ defense. The Bengals have played two games against Quinn’s defenses, winning the first meeting when he was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons in 2018, and losing the second when he was in Dallas in 2022. Quinn and Washington will come to Cincinnati this upcoming season.

Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers

One of two new hires who’s previously been part of a Super Bowl-winning coaching staff, Canales was a rather unexpected candidate following just one season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. His work elevating Geno Smith as the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterbacks coach in 2022 led to him doing the same as Baker Mayfield’s OC in Tampa. He’ll now be tasked with getting the same results with Bryce Young in Carolina. The Bengals will be on the road to face the Panthers next season.

Jerod Mayo, New England Patriots

The heir to Bill Belichick’s throne is one of his best former players and assistants of the past few years. Mayo was the Patriots’ inside linebackers coach from 2019-2022 before becoming the linebackers coach in 2023. New England’s succession plan for life after Belichick centered around Mayo, who will now look to restore the franchise the glory it once owned for two decades. The Bengals will host the Patriots next season.

Jim Harbaugh, Los Angeles Chargers

Plenty of Bengals fans who are also Ohio State fans are very familiar with Harbaugh. The former San Francisco 49ers head coach most recently spent nine years as the head of the Michigan football program. He left Ann Arbor as soon as he brought back a College Football Playoff National Championship to his alma mater, and now finds himself in California again to best maximize Justin Herbert. The Chargers will host the Bengals next season in another duel between Herbert and Joe Burrow.

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While over one-third of the Bengals' opponents will be led by brand new coaches, their six divisional games will remain the same as they've been since the 2020 season. 



The AFC North employs four of the 10 longest tenured head coaches in the league, including the longest two in Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers (17 years) and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens (16 years). That's quite the juxtaposition with the rest of their schedule featuring so many new faces.

The only two new head coaches not on next season's schedule are Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks and Raheem Morris of the Atlanta Falcons. Macdonald has coached plenty against the Bengals as the former defensive coordinator in Baltimore, and Morris was the DC for the Los Angeles Rams when they beat the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.



The Bengals will have to meet one of them in Super Bowl LIX to bump this list to seven.

Former Bengals player claims Zac Taylor nearly gave in to his biggest criticism

Change was inevitable within the ranks of Taylor’s coaching staff this month.