Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden gets compared to Aaron Glenn by expert

The Bengals are hoping they hired the next Aaron Glenn as their defensive coordinator,

The Cincinnati Bengals were finally able to make it official as they hired Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden as their new defensive coordinator.

Bengals fans should already have fairly high regard for Golden as he spent several seasons as Cincinnati’s linebackers coach, helping develop Germaine Pratt and Logan Wilson into a formidable duo during the team’s Super Bowl run.

Notre Dame analyst Mike Golic Jr. compared Golden to a defensive coordinator a little farther ahead of schedule than Golden — Aaron Glenn — the former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator newly turned New York Jets head coach.

One word that comes up consistently when you look into Notre Dame’s defense is “aggressive.” Whether they are talking about themselves or others talking about them, Golden wasn’t shy about sending pressure and moving guys around up front.

You will find that same word come up with the Lion’s defense. They rarely let quarterbacks sit back there and get through multiple reads. Plenty of man-to-man coverage as well.

One thing they also shared in common was being without several key starters through parts of last season. The Lions dealt with nearly 20 defenders missing serious time, and Glenn still had the defense playing at an average level when no one would’ve blamed a serious falloff.

This isn’t something the Bengals dealt with on the same level as either of those teams, but it was clear that the depth behind some of the injuries was lacking, and the standard (as Golic calls it) definitely fell off after a handful of injuries. Not to mention also just clearly not recognizing when a starter needed benched.

Golden now gets to come to a team where the offense was one of the best in the NFL with Joe Burrow on the other side. He may be afforded some chances to be aggressive and miss when Burrow can get the team to 30 points pretty regularly. We will have to see how it all plays out, but it is certainly high praise as Glenn was one of the biggest names this head coaching cycle.