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Vance Joseph interviewing for Cardinals DC; Todd Monken interviewing for Browns OC

One of the early favorites to land the Bengals’ head coaching job isn’t likely to come to Cincinnati for any other position. Another could end up with the Browns.

NFL: Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

It’s looking more and more likely that the Bengals will be the last team to hire their new head coach for the 2019 season. The longer they wait, the longer their candidates have to look for other work.

Vance Joseph has been considered a serious candidate for Cincinnati, but he’s been recently linked to other opportunities around the league. Today, he’s in Arizona interviewing to become the Cardinals defensive coordinator, per Ian Rapoport:

Just yesterday, Joseph’s name was linked to the Jets’ defensive coordinator position after the team announced Adam Gase as their head coach. Joseph seems to be in the running for that job along with fellow former defensive coordinators Gregg Williams and Chuck Pagano.

The Bengals also interviewed former Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator Todd Monken for their head coaching opening, and he’s now in play for the Jaguars and Browns’ offensive coordinator openings.

Monken interviewed for the Jets’ head coaching job before they hired Gase and seems to be destined to try again as an offensive coordinator again, and probably not in Cincinnati.

As for Joseph, he only interviewed with the Bengals for a head coaching opening, and as six of those openings have closed, the Bengals are the only team where he has that opportunity. But there was some speculation that Joseph could still become the Bengals’ defensive coordinator. With legitimate interest from other teams, it’s far from a lock that this will come to fruition.

Also, if Joseph still has opportunities elsewhere and there’s nothing stopping the Bengals from hiring him right now, it’s unlikely that the team will hire him as their head coach. Until it doesn’t happen, it will be treated as a possibility; but at the moment, it’s declining in possibility.

A former Bengals’ assistant, Joseph isn’t technically an internal candidate for the Bengals’ job, but his association with Marvin Lewis pretty much groups him with the three internal candidates the team interviewed. Considering the Bengals are reportedly starting to purge their staff, bringing in a former coach seems counterintuitive.