What must happen before Bengals hire Dan Pitcher as offensive coordinator
The news of Brian Callahan taking the Tennessee Titans head coaching job has the Cincinnati Bengals searching for his replacement.Callahan's departure didn't come out of nowhere. He had interviewed for gigs during last year's hiring cycle and was a candidate for multiple openings this time around as well. Cincinnati is prepared for this, but there's a […]
The news of Brian Callahan taking the Tennessee Titans head coaching job has the Cincinnati Bengals searching for his replacement.
Callahan's departure didn't come out of nowhere. He had interviewed for gigs during last year's hiring cycle and was a candidate for multiple openings this time around as well.
Cincinnati is prepared for this, but there's a process they must follow.
The most likely replacement for Callahan is current quarterbacks coach Dan Pitcher. Cincinnati extended Pitcher's contract last season with the intent of eventually promoting him once Callahan left for a promotion of his own.
Before that move can happen, head coach Zac Taylor and the club must do their due diligence.
"Yeah, I think it's my responsibility in this organization to make sure that we assess all options, and internally and externally kind of weigh what the best decisions are," Taylor told First Star Logistic's Dave Lapham. "There's great people out there that I know, there's some that I'm interested to know, and I also have a lot of confidence in the guys that we have in the building.
"There's a lot you got to take in and it's not just a clear cut–this is how we're going to do it–move on. There's an interview process that will take place that's very necessary. That's the process that we would be jumping in to next."
Taylor isn't kidding around when he throws the word "necessary" out there. The Bengals cannot simply promote Pitcher as soon as Callahan officially leaves.
The Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway explains that the Bengals must go through the league's protocol and interview multiple external minority candidates before offering the position to Pitcher.
Such rules exist so that aspiring candidates get, at least on the surface, a fair crack at elevation in their coaching careers. But much like the oft-criticized Rooney Rule, which requires clubs to interview minority candidates during head coaching searches, this is a hurdle the Bengals can overcome very easily if they're locked in on Pitcher.
Expect to hear reports of Cincinnati interviewing candidates from outside and inside the organization before a decision is reached.
Bengals became final domino to fall in recent NFL shake-up
Life moves pretty fast for NFL coaches.
