Wade Phillips still makes perfect sense for the Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals could use a presence like Wade Phillips on the coaching staff in some capacity.

Granted, Zac Taylor hasn’t made a move at defensive coordinator, sticking with Lou Anarumo. He’s only filling a few vacancies underneath the coordinator spots, highlighted by Frank Pollack returning to replace the departed Jim Turner as offensive line coach.

But a recent tweet from Phillips — that he’d like to return to coaching — has brought this subject to light again.

And it sure doesn’t hurt that Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt commented on it briefly, only adding a little more fuel to such an idea:

Pratt isn’t wrong — Phillips has been a staple of pro defenses since 1976. And as we’ve noted in the past, his Los Angeles Rams connection with Zac Taylor makes the move seem like an obvious one.

This isn’t suggesting Taylor oust Anarumo for Phillips by any means. But a coaching staff that was widely criticized as inexperienced and/or underqualified and proved that right en route to 6-25-1 could use a man of Phillips’ experience, even in an assistant or quality control role.

Phillips would have to want to come to Cincinnati and settle for a non-coordinator role, of course. But Taylor’s seemingly limited pro connections are what held up his first staff construction and has limited his pool of candidates in the first place — why not flex this connection and see what happens?

None of this is a slight on Anarumo, whose defense never seemed to get a fair health shake in 2020 (Trae Waynes never even saw the field, for example). Despite that, the unit showed flashes.

But the Bengals are going into the second year of a major roster overhaul so having Phillips’ expertise — nevermind his overwhelming player connections and reputation — helping things along would likely provide a boon to the process.

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