Bengals to interview former Cowboys RB coach Gary Brown for same position

The Cincinnati Bengals need a few more assistant coaches to completely fill out their staff, but running backs coach is the last true vacancy they have left. That spot might be filled very soon.

Former Cowboys and Browns running backs coach Gary Brown will interview with the Bengals for the same position next week, per NFL insider Tom Pelissero.

Brown was an NFL RB coach from 2009-2019. He spent 2009-2012 with the Cleveland Browns before joining the Cowboys in 2013. Coincidentally, 2013 was the first year Frank Pollack joined the Cowboys’ staff as the assistant OL coach to Bill Callahan. Brown and Pollack stayed together in Dallas from 2013-2017, with Pollack being the main OL coach beginning in 2015.

In their final two years working together, Dallas managed to manufacture one of the NFL’s best rushing attacks. This began with the team drafting Ezekiel Elliott in 2016 to run behind a star-studded offensive line. From 2016-2017, Dallas was first in both Expected Points Added per rush and success rate on rushes. Elliott led the NFL in rushing yards during those two years, as many NFL fans remember.

Even before Elliott, the Cowboys got an All-Pro season out of running back Demarco Murray in 2014, so Brown and Pollack have a productive history together.

Pollack was eventually fired by the Cowboys in 2018 and came to Cincinnati, but Brown stuck around through 2019. Brown was not retained by the Cowboys after that season and later in the offseason, he learned that he had a malignant tumor around his pancreas. Brown had previously dealt with cancer when he was with the Browns, so he took the 2020 season off with COVID-19 rampaging the country and cancer returning to him.

Now that Brown is healthy again, it’s clear that Pollack wants to reunite with his former colleague in Cincinnati. One of Pollack’s primary objectives this year is to fix the Bengals’ running game, and adding Brown to the equation would greatly help that problem.