Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan sounds pleasantly surprised when talking about his new offense.
Callahan told the media he now realizes just how much injuries ruined the potential of the unit last season.
“From start to finish, injuries certainly played a huge part in the difficulties down the stretch,” Callahan said, according to Bengals.com. “I hadn’t realized how well they played on offense early in the year. There’s a lot of good football put on tape offensively until the injuries derailed the momentum from early in the season. With a healthy unit, a healthy A. J. (Green), a healthy Andy (Dalton) for them last year with a healthy Eifert, that’s a game-changing group of people playing well enough to win a lot of games.”
Like many, Callahan missed the flash in the pan that was the Cincinnati offense early in the season before Tyler Eifert went down with an injury.
The flash was elite, at least: The Bengals scored 34 or more in three of their first four games, besting Indianapolis, Baltimore and Atlanta in the process. Over the course of those wins, Andy Dalton threw nine touchdowns against just two interceptions.
From the sounds of it, Callahan probably wouldn’t mind having Eifert back in the fold for another chance at that upside again.
The job of realizing the unit’s potential on a consistent basis falls to Callahan and his staff under the watchful eye of Zac Taylor.
