It's difficult to toe the line between praising the new guy without bringing up reasons why the old guy was fired in the first place. Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel and de facto general manager Duke Tobin found himself in that spot Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

The Bengals made a change at defensive coordinator last month by replacing Lou Anarumo with Al Golden. Cincinnati's defense dropped off dramatically under the former over the last two years while Golden ascended to being the best assistant in college football directly after his two-year stint as the Bengals' linebackers coach. 

If you want a few reasons as to why Anarumo was ultimately replaced his former assistant coach, Tobin indirectly provided them while praising Golden when he wasn't answering questions about new contracts for Ja'Marr Chase, Trey Hendrickson, and Tee Higgins.

Having a vision for new players 

The first thing Tobin said about Golden was his style of involvement. Golden knows what he wants in his players from the jump.

"Al is super hands on," Tobin said of Golden. "And we want our coaches to be super hands on. We want to be in alignment when we take a guy. We want a vision for him. And we want everybody on board. Everybody that touches that guy is on board with it, knows the plan and is going to work towards the plan. And Al is super engaged, super high energy, hands on, knows exactly what he wants. His coaches know what he wants. So it's going to be great working with him. Looking forward to it, I think he would have a pretty good idea of what's playing on the college level right now."

Anarumo was given two first-round picks to work with in his last three years in Cincinnati, Dax Hill and Myles Murphy, and it never seemed like there was a clear vision on how to use them. Hill rode the bench as a rookie and ended up switching from safety to cornerback between his second and third season. Murphy has also experienced limited playing time as he's had to learn how to rush from the left edge with Hendrickson playing exclusively on the right side. 

Not only did Anarumo have trouble utilizing these players, it never seemed like he was totally on board with taking them in the first place.  

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Ensuring alignment is had between coaches and personnel 

There was a word Tobin mentioned in the above answer that stood out, and he reused that word several times when continuing to expand on what Golden brings to the process. 

"It's a collaboration with our coaching staff and our personnel staff," Tobin said. "You know, we want alignment. If there's not alignment, we're going to find it, and we're going to make sure that everyone sees what the other is seeing. And then if we can't find alignment, we'll go in a different direction. But, you know, we want that alignment, and it's been great working with Al so far."

"Alignment" was the word if you couldn't tell. Clearly, that lacked when it came to drafting Hill and Murphy in back-to-back years. The scouting department can hand coaches all kinds of players, but if the coaches aren't on board with said players, the players will not experience their full potential.

That can't happen with the Bengals defense anymore. Tobin does not want that to be a problem with Golden, and based on his response, he doesn't expect that to be the case.

No more biased treatment on who plays

Might as well list this as "No more Vonn Bell over Jordan Battle." Tobin made it clear Golden won't give preferential treatment to veteran players like Anarumo was so accustomed to doing. Sam Hubbard over Murphy, Germaine Pratt over Shaka Heyward, etc. 

"I think Al will play the best players," Tobin said. "He's going to want guys that execute what he wants. 

"Al is going to be very open minded on playing the best, not not playing a veteran or playing a rookie. It'll be, 'he's the best one we have, and we're going to play with him.'" 

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Anarumo did many great things in his six years, but the time for change was needed as evidenced by all the things Golden brings to the table. 

The expectations for Golden are set as he embarks on rebuilding Cincinnati's defense from the ground up. He's going to have several coaches he's familiar with helping him out as Jordan Kovacs, Ronnie Regula, and reportedly Mike Moon and Sean Desai, have all coached under him before. 

Vision, alignment, objectivity. Golden needs to confirm all three in 2025.

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