Is retaining Lou Anarumo the right move for Bengals?

Well the Bengals are making a ton of coaching changes heading into 2021 after the team only managed six wins over two seasons, but one man keeping his job is defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo.

Anarumo’s defense has struggled to play consistently these past two seasons. It was unfortunate that going into this season so many big free agents went out with injury early along with Geno Atkins, who was never really healthy. Those additions were meant to help make that unit more of a strength after it was one of the worst in the NFL in 2019.

We as fans still saw this unit struggle against the top offenses and quarterbacks. There were a few good games where the defense looked marginally better, but they came against Alex Smith, Daniel Jones, Colt McCoy and one of the worst Ben Roethlisberger performances of all time.

This defense almost ended 2020 in a historic fashion when they nearly gifted the Ravens the most rushing yards ever in a single game. Baltimore probably would’ve gotten it if they didn’t pull a lot of their starters as well.

It really is hard to fid good things to say about Anarumo’s time as the head of the defense so far. It is only easy to come up with excuses that so many players have missed time thought the season that were meant to play bigger roles. Maybe Cincinnati expect getting some of those guys healthy will result in a better performance, but it is hard to imagine his seat isn’t going to be scorching.