Over the past four seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals offense has relied almost exclusively on talent as the team currently has 7 out of 11 starters that were drafted in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft. While the talent on this offense is exceptional, the play calling has left something to be desired over the past few seasons as the team has struggled in significant situational areas during head coach Zac Taylor‘s tenure. With the departure of some major components of the offense including offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and wide receivers Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd, there may be some major changes to the offense in 2024.
Zac Taylor May Change Bengals’ Play Calling Strategy in 2024
Up until now, one of the most unique parts of the Cincinnati offense has been the democratic approach that Taylor brings to the play calling strategy. The plan up until now has been that the offensive coaching staff including Taylor, Callahan, quarterbacks coach turned offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher and the rest of the offensive coaching staff has an open communications channel during games and just throws out ideas like a bunch of college kids playing an online game of Madden. While that may be a successful strategy at making the staff feel validated, it has been horrible in terms of getting this elite offense into a rhythm.
For how talented the pieces on offense have been, the Cincinnati offense has ranked 13th (2021), 8th (2022) and 22nd (2023) in total offensive yardage. For a team with as much talent on the offensive side of the ball as Cincinnati has, failing to crack to top five in offensive productivity should be considered unacceptable. Since there is essentially no way to improve the talent on the offensive side of the ball, the only possibility is the coaching and more specifically, the playcalling.
The news was first broken by legendary Cincinnati broadcaster and former Bengals guard David Lapham on the WLW radio show.
“I heard that Zac Taylor was considering giving up the play calling role to Brian Callahan next season,” Lapham told Lance McAlister on 700 WLW. “That changed when Brian Callahan moved on. It is done by democracy, it is not a dictatorship. Everybody has a voice and everybody has a big voice,” Lapham added. “If you show that your voice merits it, you’re gonna get a bigger voice and that’s what happened with Dan Pitcher.”
According to Lapham, Taylor may be taking a more active role in calling plays now that he is dealing with a first time offensive coordinator in Pitcher. In reality, either of them are plenty qualified to take the reigns but the inconsistent strategies and consistency isn’t there when you go with the crowd sourcing approach. If Cincinnati wants to make another deep run into the playoffs and finally become the league’s most explosive offense, they’ll need to delegate playcalling to one individual to maintain a consistent strategy.
For More Football News:
Follow me on Twitter at @Super_Squatch76. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in college and NFL news, click here! If there is a topic you’d like me to cover or a question you’d like to ask, feel free to contact me at my email timothy.mcbride76@gmail.com.
1 Comment
Ummm where did Higgins and Boyd go?