Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, right, introduced new defensive coordinator Al Golden at Paycor Stadium on

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, right, introduced new defensive coordinator Al Golden at Paycor Stadium on Monday, January 27, 2025. Golden returns to Cincinnati after being the defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Golden was the Bengals linebacker coach from 2020-21. / Cara Owsley/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI – A common conversation in the Cincinnati Bengals’ search for a new defensive coordinator was one that surmised the new hire only needed to get the unit to the middle of the pack to avoid wasting the talents of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and one of the league’s top offenses.

Al Golden shot down that line of thinking Monday afternoon when the team announced him as Lou Anarumo’s successor.

He didn’t take the job because of the lower degree of difficulty presented by Burrow and Co.

Golden said he returned to the Bengals to get the Cincinnati defense on par with the teams that were playing for conference championships Sunday.

And that will start, he said, with a more detailed, demanding spring than has been the case the last few years.

“I do believe in maybe challenging a little bit more in the spring, just so there’s better recall in the summer and then ultimately, in preseason camp,” Golden said. “I’m not a big believer in drawing up something crazy on a Thursday night. I just don’t believe in that.

“You can quality control enough in the offseason that you can develop a menu that can endure the entire season,” he added. “Certainly there will be little nuances that you have to do. But if you want the guys to play fast, then just be highly organized and be able to pull things that you can help you versus opponent X or opponent Y.”

The planning toward that already is underway, with Golden spending time last week with his newly hired assistants as well as the two he retained from Anarumo’s staff.

Golden said he knows the Xs and Os are where everything begins, but ultimately the goal is to empower the players to take ownership of the unit and feel free to make adjustments to the framework.

It’s not about the freedom to freelance. It comes down to the group being on the same page and understanding when and where to flip to the next one.

“One heartbeat,” Golden said. “We all have to believe in the same thing. We talked about it earlier. There’s not going to be much gray. I don’t live in that gray world. It’s very important for us to be a championship defense we are going to have to be empowered.

“I can’t make all the calls,” he continued. “Same thing with the staff. You make a certain call, and the players have to have the trust and ingenuity and confidence to make a specific adjustment on the field. At some point you have to turn the keys over to the players.”

Fundamentally, Golden knows the tackling has to get better.

Per SportRadar, the Bengals had 117 missed tackles in 2024, the eighth most in the league. That was a 65 percent increase from 2023, when the defense still wasn’t good but only had 71 missed tackles.

“You identify what the errors are and are those errors systematic? If so, you have to take a hard look at yourself and say, ‘OK, what can we change?’” Golden said. “We are going to teach it. We are going to drill it. We are going to quality control it. We are going to show the application to the game and then we are going to show the standard. Whether that’s Bengals or other guys in our division or around the league, we are chasing that standard.

“We’ll repeat that process until it is refined and owned by the players,” he added. “For that to happen, it has to move from their head to their heart. If they can get to the point we all believe in the same thing and start to see it on tape, that’s when the magic happens.”

As far as alignment, the Bengals will not look much different than they did under Anarumo.

Golden said he believes in the 4-3 and 4-2 nickel looks.

But rigidity is not part of the plan.

“I’ve never liked to be painted into a corner in terms of that,” Golden said. “What are our strengths? What do our guys do best? And then what will our auxiliary fronts be? How can we be a little bit different than maybe the standard?

“That’s where we’ll get together with (linebackers coach Mike Hodges) and (defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery) and say, ‘OK, what did you guys like in the past? What do you think gives people problems?” Golden continued. “And then juxtapose that with the division. Because everything’s going to start with the division.”

The Ravens ranked first in the league in rushing, while the Browns were 12th and the Steelers 13th.

In terms of coverage, Notre Dame was one of the most man-reliant defenses in the country under Golden, leading to an appearance in the College Football Playoff championship game.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to run things the same way against NFL offenses.

“I think the thing that made us difficult is we played a lot of different coverages,” Golden said. “We may not have played as many zones as people wanted but our changeups were really great. Our middle field open changeups, our three-zone changeups. That came off of that man-to-man look. That’s what made us hard.

“We just gravitated toward being a more on-body man team last year,” he added. “But that is not to say that’s what we will be best at. Put the players in the right position. Identify what they do best and then plot a course. That’s what we will do here.”

The Bengals ranked 31st in yards allowed and 21st in points allowed in 2024.

That’s the primary reason they missed the playoffs for the second season in a row despite owning a winning record.

Watching the teams that did make the playoffs and reached Sunday’s championship games drove home the point that Golden and the Bengals have a long way to go.

“Part of the challenge of being here, the challenge of watching TV yesterday is that it’s not a good feeling in terms of, ‘we’re not there,’” he said. “That’s what motivates you to get up today and say, ‘OK, you’ve gotta do something about it.’ That’s what we plan to do.”