Evidently Paycor is in advanced talks to be purchased by a company called Paychex....

Be curious of what happens to our stadium name.

Well, that did not take long!

Here I was, preparing for an off-season roster thread, and the FO moved on some coaching changes.

Reportedly, DC Lou Anarumo, OL/run game coordinator coach Frank Pollack, DL coach Marion Hobby, and LB coach James Bettcher have all been let go.

https://www.wlwt.com/article/cincinnati-bengals-2025-coaching-changes-lou-anarumo/63349373

So I guess I'll add a component to the roster thread, the coaches part. I will start there and then go into a list of the current roster status and FA's. Followed up by our cap situation and analysis. And then a roster analysis/path forward section by position group.

I will try to break it up into manageable bites.

Here goes:

2025 Bengals Rosters: Coaches & Players

I. Current Coaching Roster

https://www.bengals.com/team/coaches-roster/

A. Head Coach & Coordinators
Head Coach: Zach Taylor
Offensive Coordinator: Dan Pitcher
Defensive Coordinator: Open (Lou Anarumo fired)
Chief of Coaching staff: Doug Rosfeld
----------------

B. Offensive Coaches

Run game coordinator/OL: Open (Frank Pollack fired)
Pass game coordinator: Justin Rascati
WR: Troy Walters
TE: James Casey
RB: Justin Hill
QB: Brad Kragthorpe
-----------
Offensive assistant: Jordan Salkin
OL assistant: Detek Frazier
QB assistant: Fredi Knighten
-----------

C. Defensive Coaches

Senior Defensive Assistant: Mark Duffner
DL: Open (Marion Hobby fired)
LB: Open (James Bettcher fired)
Secondary/CBs: Charles Burks
Secondary/Safeties: Jordan Kovacs
------------
Defensive Assistant: Ronnie Regula
Defensive Quality Control: Louie Cioffi
----------

D. Special Teams Coaches

ST Coordinator/Assistant HC: Darrin Simmons
ST Assistant: Ben Jacobs

E. Strength & Conditioning

Head/DIR Player Performance: Joey Boese
Ast STR & COND: Diamond Simmons
Ast STR & COND: Garrett Swanson
=====================

II. Current Player Roster: Signed for 2025 = 44

Offense = 21
QB (2): Burrow; Browning
RB (3): C. Brown; Moss, Milton
WR (5): Chase, Iosivas; C. Jones, I. Williams, Burton
TE (3): D Sample; All, McLachlan
OT (3): O. Brown, Mims, Cochran
G (3): Cappa, Volson; Stueber
C (2): Karras (C/G), Lee (C/T/G)
----------------
Defense = 22
DE (5): Hendrickson, Hubbard; Murphy, C. Johnson, I. Thomas
DT (3): Rankins; Jenkins, Jackson
LB (4): L. Wilson, Pratt; Njongmeta, Heyward
CB (6): CTB, D. Hill; Turner, Newton, Ivey, L Robinson
S (4): Battle, Stone; Anderson, Anthony
---------------
PK: McPherson
P:
LS:
=================

III. Bengals Free Agents: 53/IR

Pos, Player

1. WR2:Tee Higgins
---------
2. DT1: BJ Hill
3. CB3: Mike Hilton
4. TE2/WR4: Mike Gesicki
5. P: Ryan Rehkow
6. LS: Cal Adomitis
-------------
7. RT1: Trent Brown
8. OG3/OT4: Cody Ford
9. DE3: Joseph Ossai
10. LB3: Akeem Davis-Gaither
11. S3: Vonn Bell
12. RB3: Khalil Herbert
------------
13. DE5: Cam Sample
14. TE4: Tanner Hudson
15. DT5: Jay Tufele
16. TE5: Cam Grandy
17. LB4: Joe Bachie
18. OG5/OT6: Jaxson Kirkland
19. PK: Cade York
------------
20. RB4: Trayveon Williams
21. RB5: Chris Evans
22. OG/OT: D'Ante Smith
23. CB7: Marco Williams
--------------

I *THINK* that is everyone. But I have a feeling I forgot a couple.
================

IV. Bengals Free Agents: Practice Squad

1. CB Jalen Davis
2. WR Kendric Pryor
3. OC/OG: Tre Hill
----------
4..QB: Logan Woodside
5. RB: Gary Brightwell
6. WR: Cole Burgess
7. OT: Andrew Coker
8. OG: Tayshawn Manning
9. DE: Raymond Johnson III
10. DT: Dominique Davis
11. CB: Micah Abraham
12. CB: Nate Beooks
13. S: PJ Jules
14. S: Craig Young
15. S: Jaylen Key
--------

Whew! Round 2 will be cap analysis, PFF scores, and position group stuff.

Now that Lou and Frank have been shown the door, it's time to share your desired replacements.

My personal fav for DC is Wink Matendale (DC/MICH). And he can bring Kenneth Grant with him.

We did not make the playoffs. The odds were always long and ultimately we did not get the outside help needed. A lot of posts here are being quite negative, and I get it. We expected to be Super Bowl contenders and this was a big let down. But now that the season is really over the time has come to really look at what happened.

1) Our usual slow start. Going 0-3 put us in the hole from the start. And although we made it to 9-8 it took a 5 game winning streak to get there.

2) Freak plays that went against us. Really until the finale we had no games where the "bounce of the ball" went our way. It happens sometimes.

3) Players unexpectedly collapsing, Mac unexpectedly went south and so did Hubbard, Cappa and Bell among others. Had they played at their 2023 levels we are likely getting ready to host a playoff game as AFCN champs.

4) Losing not one but two games directly sue to missed/iffy calls (KC and Baltimore Game 2).

5) A historically bad defense.

Some of this is clearly on the team and some of it out of anyones control. But not everything was a downer. For example:

1) Burrow, Chase and Trey not only had strong seasons but record setting elite seasons.

2) Chase Brown, Mike Gesicki and others stepped up.

3) The injury spate got a lot of our youngsters into the lineup so we have a much clearer picture on where the young talent stands. Some (Jackson, Jenkins, Mims, Battle, Yoshi, etc.) are keepers and others we now know are up for replacement.

4) Winning 5 straight is not easy to do regardless of the opponents.


So while not being in it for the Lombardi this year is a big disappointment (and yes it is another season where the Bengals have never lifted the Lombardi which is not how to repay the fans for their support) it is much more up and down than the typical Bengals train wrecks. Yes there are needs to upgrade to but also yes we had players play well. We are officially into our offseason and hopefully we see coaching changes and the correct priorities in player acquisition

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/allbengals-insiders-plus/sources-bengals-expected-to-make-changes-to-coaching-staff-after-missing-playoffs-01jgwfv507fn


We can always hope I guess

get on phone and work on extensions for Ja'Marr and Trey. Like Burrow said, management needs to get these taken care of early. Lets not wait until next August to get something done. Also, see what BJ Hill is looking for. While not an elite tackle, he is above average. If we lose him, a bad defense will probably be even worse.

Bengals are projected to have the 17th pick in the 2025 NFL draft. That will certainly cure all the team's ills! Viva la Bengals!

With the season over, things are about to get interesting. The gaslighting and make-believe of 8 percent playoff chances has evaporated. No more shitty teams to beat up on.

Now, for two years straight, you're asking why a team with Super Bowl expectations is Cancun on 3.

The glaze of the Super Bowl appearance is wearing off. The once-in-a-franchise-lifetime quarterback appears to be agitated.

We've all bought into the narrative of them trying to retain Tee and Ja'marr. Why? Because Joe wants it? What does the family think?

At the end of the day, the old man will have the final say. We assume that he won't alienate another all-time-franchise great in Chase by offering another lame-ass extension. Everyone assumes that things are different. We assume he will somehow bow to Joe and do his bidding. I think that this belief is misinformed.

Even if he did do as Joe suggests, is that even appropriate? Maybe we need a defense more than we need to keep the band together.

Lots of moving parts and volatility here. The upside is that we have 2 top 10 players in the league on the roster. Probably the best qb in the league. Best receiver hands down. Those things should be advantages. Somehow, the team has manages to makes them potential obstacles.

They have to stick the landing in 25. If they don't, it will never happen for us. If we don't win it with Burrow, we never will. Screwing this era of Bengals football up is going to be fatal to the organization's tenure in Cincinnati.

It's time for the family to show that's it's serious. This offseason will tell us absolutely everything we need to know about the future of the Bengals in Cincinnati.

Another dead cat bounce useless season. Congrats Zac and company!

Many will trash him. I understand the concerns. For the record, Zac owns the record for most playoff wins with 5. He holds the record for best playoff win %, He is third for wins behind Marvin Lewis and Sam Wyche. ML has 131 wins and Wyche has 62 wins. It is likely ZT passes Sam in 2025 for most wins, and he will do so having coached less games.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cin/coaches.htm

This ZT could have quit after their 8th loss and very bad AFC record making playoffs a very slim possibility. They did not. It is hard to win 5 games in a row in the NFL, He did it again. I am disappointed we likely will miss the playoffs, but optimistic the FO sees the weaknesses (LG may be the biggest followed by safety) and will address them in FA and the draft.

I will predict ZT will soon have a winning record as a head coach after a disastrous beginning to his career due to poor talent in year 1 and Burrow's rookie year getting injured. Many may not agree, but I don't see ZT going anywhere and him getting us back to the Super Bowl sooner than later.

Congrats to ZT and the team, going from 4-8 to 9-8.

If the season is over later today, on to 2025.