Coaching Matters: 2022 Cincinnati Bengals Coaching Staff Preview

July 4, 2022

Eli Grabanski previews the 2022 Cincinnati Bengals' coaching staff in search of buy-lows, fantasy football sleepers, and risers based on play-calling and historical data.

After every NFL season, NFL teams take the time to evaluate not only the players but also the coaching staff and front office as well. While many teams choose to retain the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, a few other teams opt to go in a new direction with their coaching staff.

One team that managed to maintain its core coaching staff this offseason was the Cincinnati Bengals, with head coach Zac Taylor, offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo all returning for the 2022-23 season.

This article will look at the potential impact this coaching staff will have on the players and try to pinpoint the Bengals players' fantasy values in it.

The Baseline

To get a better understanding of the value the Bengals coaches bring to this team, we can look at the NFL league averages in each of the past two years in a variety of statistical categories and then compare them to the averages achieved by the Bengals coaches. Here are 'The Baseline' NFL league averages over the past couple of years:

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Defense Impact

2022 Offense

2022 Head Coach: Zac Taylor

Zac Taylor has had an interesting career as the Cincinnati Bengals head coach. In his first two years coaching the team, the Bengals combined a 6-25-1 record and it looked like Taylor was going to be on the hot seat during the 2021-22 season. However, in 2021-22, the Bengals went 10-7 and made a Cinderella run to the Super Bowl where they lost a tight one to the Rams 23-20. Given Taylor's coaching background, let's dive into some team statistics from Zac Taylor's time in an offensive coordinator or head coaching role to see how he may impact the team's fantasy prospects.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

2022 Offensive Coordinator: Brian Callahan

Brian Callahan was hired to be the Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator back in 2019 after previously serving as the Oakland Raiders quarterbacks coach (2018). While he's only worked under Zac Taylor and never been the official offensive play-caller, let's take a look at some statistics from Brian Callahan's time in the Bengals offensive coordinator role.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Zac Taylor and Brian Callahan Takeaways & Expectations

Since Zac Taylor has been the primary play-caller for the Bengals and Brian Callahan has only worked under Taylor as an offensive coordinator, we will talk primarily about the offense Taylor has liked to run over the course of his career in this section. Zac Taylor's offenses have averaged 35.76 passing attempts over the 54 games he's been interim offensive coordinator (2015 Miami Dolphins) or the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals – which is slightly above the league average. Having more passing plays called will make it easier for his quarterback, Joe Burrow, to put up big fantasy passing numbers and continue to build upon an impressive 2021 season.

Besides the number of passing opportunities a quarterback may have, it's also important to pay attention to the number of rushing work a quarterback receives since it can give your quarterback a higher ceiling in fantasy leagues. Over the course of his career as an offensive coordinator or head coach, Taylor's quarterback room has averaged three carries per game.

Based on the QB carries graph above, Zac Taylor has seen a below-average number of rushing attempts from his quarterbacks in every single season he's been an offensive coordinator or head coach. This rushing usage puts more pressure on Joe Burrow to put up big passing numbers to finish in the QB1 range of fantasy football leagues. Based on this information, while Joe Burrow may be one of the most exciting players to watch in the NFL right now, there's a good chance he will be slightly overvalued in fantasy drafts for the 2022 season – especially if he's drafted higher than the low-end QB1/high-end QB2 range.

Examining Zac Taylor's running back rooms, he has not been particularly impressive in utilizing or getting production out of them. Over the course of 54 games that he's been a play-caller, his running back room has averaged 21.35 carries, 84.91 rushing yards, and 0.59 rushing touchdowns per game.

What this means is that if old trends hold true, Zac Taylor's running back room will end up with a below-average number of carries. In terms of the distribution of carries, how often is it going to one player versus Taylor conducting a running back by committee approach?

Outside of 2020 where starting running back Joe Mixon only played in six games, Taylor has given his lead back a significant chunk of the carries. With Joe Mixon back again for the 2022 season, we should expect Taylor to continue to take the bell-cow approach with Mixon once again receiving roughly 75% of the team's tailback carries.

The final aspect we should look at with Zac Taylor's running backs is how much he has traditionally utilized them in the passing game. Over the course of his career, Taylor's running back room has averaged just 5.88 targets per game – which is slightly below the league averages we've seen in recent years.

Overall, the combination of Taylor providing a below-average number of carries and targets would traditionally make it a little more difficult for the team to produce a top-tier fantasy back. Having said that, because Taylor takes a bell-cow approach to the position and the Bengals offense can put up points in a hurry, Joe Mixon's fantasy floor is still pretty high. Based on all this information, Joe Mixon should be valued as a low-end RB1 going into the 2022 NFL season.

Looking at the wide receiver position, in Zac Taylor's 54-game career as an offensive play-caller his wide receiver room has averaged an impressive 23.22 targets per game. For reference, the average wide receiver room averaged 20.21 targets per game in 2020 and 19.75 targets per game in 2021.

The most encouraging thing about this usage is that it isn't just one outlier year boosting the totals – every single year Taylor has been a play-caller his wide receiver room has received an above-average number of targets per game. This high-level usage raises both the floor and the ceiling of all the Cincinnati Bengals' wide receivers for the 2022 season. You should feel pretty comfortable investing in Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd.

While Taylor's usage of wide receivers may be encouraging, his historical usage of tight ends is not nearly as encouraging. Over the course of his career, Taylor's tight end room has averaged just 5.43 targets per game. To provide some perspective on how low this is, the league average has been 7.03 tight end targets (2020) and 6.93 tight end targets (2021) per game over the last two seasons.

This usage will make it difficult for any of the Bengals' tight ends to be anything more than a streamer during the 2022 season. For this reason, you should probably not be targeting any of the Bengals' tight ends in your re-draft fantasy leagues this season and look elsewhere for better options.

Fantasy Relevant Players: Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon, Samaje Perine, Chris Evans, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd, Mike Thomas, Trent Taylor, Stanley Morgan, Pooka Williams Jr., Hayden Hurst, and Drew Sample

2022 Defense

2022 Defensive Coordinator: Lou Anarumo

Lou Anarumo has been the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive coordinator since 2019. Prior to becoming the Bengals defensive coordinator, he was the defensive backs coach for the Miami Dolphins (2012-2018) and New York Giants (2019) and also had a brief 12-game stint as the Miami Dolphins' interim defensive coordinator in 2015. Let's dive into the defensive statistics his teams have compiled over the course of his career as a defensive coordinator.

Other Notable Assistants

Special Teams Coordinator: Darrin Simmons - Darrin Simmons is the longest-tenured coach on the Cincinnati Bengals coaching staff. He's been a special teams coach with the team since 2003 and became the team's special teams coordinator in 2013.

QB Coach: Dan Pitcher - Dan Pitcher is entering his third year as the Cincinnati Bengals quarterbacks coach after being promoted to the role for the 2020 NFL season. He's been with the Bengals since 2016.

RB Coach: Justin Hill - Justin Hill joined the Cincinnati Bengals coaching staff in 2021. Prior to joining the Bengals, he spent six seasons at the University of Tulsa as a running backs coach (2015-2020).

WR Coach: Troy Walters - Troy Walters was the Bengals assistant wide receivers coach in 2020 and was promoted to the wide receivers coach in the 2021 season. He's previously been a wide receivers coach at the college level for Indiana State (2009), Texas A&M (2010-2011), NC State (2012), Colorado (2013-2015), UCF (2016-2017), and Nebraska (2018-2019). Walters also played wide receiver in the NFL for the Minnesota Vikings (2000-2001), Indianapolis Colts (2002-2005), Arizona Cardinals (2006), and Detroit Lions (2007).

TE Coach: James Casey - James Casey has been the Cincinnati Bengals tight ends coach since 2019. He also played tight end in the NFL for the Houston Texans (2009-2012), Philadelphia Eagles (2013-2014), and Denver Broncos (2015).

OL Coach: Frank Pollack - Frank Pollack rejoined the Bengals in 2021 as the team's offensive line coach and run game coordinator. At the NFL level, Pollack's been the offensive line coach for the Oakland Raiders (2012), Dallas Cowboys (2015-2017), Cincinnati Bengals (2018), and New York Jets (2019-2020). He also played guard and tackle at the NFL level for the San Francisco 49ers (1990-1991, 1994-1997) and the Denver Broncos (1992-1993).

DL Coach: Marion Hobby - Marion Hobby joined the Cincinnati Bengals coaching staff in 2021. He's been coaching in a variety of roles at the college and NFL levels since 1995 and has previously been an NFL defensive line coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2017-2018) and Miami Dolphins (2019-2020).

LB Coach: James Bettcher - With Al Golden going back to the college ranks to serve as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator, the Bengals will have a new linebackers coach in James Bettcher for the 2022 NFL season. Bettcher has been coaching football since 2004 and has been an outside linebackers coach in the past for the Indianapolis Colts (2012) and the Arizona Cardinals (2013-2014). Bettcher has also served as a defensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals (2015-2017) and the New York Giants (2018-2019).

Cornerbacks Coach: Charles Burks - The Cincinnati Bengals will also have a new cornerbacks coach in 2022 with Steve Jackson joining the Atlanta Falcons as a senior offensive assistant. Replacing Jackson will be Charles Burks, who spent the last two seasons as the cornerbacks' coach for the Miami Dolphins.

Secondary/Safeties Coach: Robert Livingston - Robert Livingston has been with the Bengals his entire NFL coaching career. He's been working with the Bengals secondary since 2016 and has been the team's safeties coach since 2018.

Enjoy this series? Be sure to check out all of the other 'Coaching Matters' team previews!

AFC North: Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Ravens

Follow Eli Grabanski on Twitter: @3li_handles

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