Lost in the flood of NFL news this week was a surprisingly interesting nugget: Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor admitted he tried to bring current Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson to Cincinnati as a defensive coach after the 2020 season, per Mike Petraglia.
At the time, Johnson had worked for the Detroit Lions as an offensive quality control coach before climbing the ladder to tight ends coach and, eventually, offensive coordinator. Chicago hired him away in 2025 to lead the Bears—and the rest is rapidly changing NFL history.
Meanwhile, the Bengals—then powered by Lou Anarumo’s defense and still boasting several star players—rode that unit to a Super Bowl appearance in 2021 and another AFC Championship Game in 2022. But since then, the wheels have come off. The defense was the primary culprit in Cincinnati missing the postseason in 2024, and Anarumo was ultimately fired.
Former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden arrived in 2025 to right the ship, but early results were even worse. Their Thanksgiving performance may have offered Bengals Nation a glimmer of hope that brighter days are coming, but the lingering question remains:
What might the Bengals’ trajectory have looked like if Ben Johnson had been on their sideline—first in Cincinnati, not Detroit—before his rise to the Windy City?
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