There have been some questions and speculation as to how the Cincinnati Bengals offense might work now that Brian Callahan is off to coach the Tennessee Titans and Dan Pitcher holds the offensive coordinator spot.
While subsequent coaching moves to fill Pitcher’s quarterbacks positional role and otherwise have yet to be announced, it indeed sounds like head coach Zac Taylor will still serve as the play-caller.
This gets a nod from Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com in a recent column:
Even though it is Taylor’s show, and he says he’ll still call the plays, he also thinks a division of labor is healthy and smart. Among Callahan’s many responsibilities down through the years were protections and red zone. As the quarterbacks coach responsible for their techniques and progressions, Pitcher was also in charge of third down.
Collaboration.
Like this third down in Buffalo.
This division of duties is part of what made Callahan an attractive head coach candidate for a number of years and helped prep Pitcher for the coordinator role.
Granted, that’s not going to appease fans who want to see someone else in charge of the calls based on what they’ve seen from the on-field product over the last few seasons.
If there’s a silver lining for those fans, at least, this means the transition from Callahan to Pitcher should be about as smooth as it could get, especially compared to bringing on an outside coach.
Unless something changes, though, it’s going to be Taylor at the controls with the usual structure around Joe Burrow’s offense.
