Bengals Respond to Report About Having the Least-Diverse Staff in NFL This Season

The Cincinnati Bengals released a statement in response to a USA Today report Thursday showing they have the least-diverse staff in the NFL with five non-white coaches.

"This organization and its founders have a long-standing history of supporting diversity in the NFL dating back to 1946 when [team founder] Paul Brown signed Marion Motley and Bill Willis, breaking pro football's color barrier," the Bengals said.

Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor, whose staff features 16 white coaches, said the league has a "ways to go" to overcome systemic racism within the coaching ranks.

"I know we've worked really hard here at the Cincinnati Bengals, and our ownership has done a great job of that," he said. "We've got some great coaches of a lot of different races that I think are very deserving of opportunities and I look forward to seeing them get those."

The NFL entered the 2022 season with just three Black head coaches—the Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Tomlin, Houston Texans' Lovie Smith and Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Todd Bowles—despite the league being made up of 58 percent Black players in 2021, per Statista.

Tomlin has led the Steelers' staff since 2007, while Smith and Bowles were both internal promotion hires earlier this year. None of the 10 openings this past offseason were filled by an external Black candidate.

Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, a former head coach with the Minnesota Vikings, was a popular interview target during the offseason but didn't land a second head coaching opportunity. He expressed his frustration with the hiring process to the Washington Post last week.

"It seems like the criteria moves," Frazier said. "One week, or one year, it's 'We want an offensive-minded guy.' Another year: 'We want a guy with a Super Bowl-winning background.' What's the criteria? Sometimes it's because he's 'a great leader.' Sometimes it's because he 'came up the same way I came up.' But the common theme ... is [an owner is going] to hire someone that looks like that owner."

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who was fired in January despite back-to-back winning seasons, filed a lawsuit in February alleging racial discrimination in the league's hiring practices.

In wake of that legal filing, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell pledged the league would work to find more effective policies to ensure equal opportunity.

"You don't take anything off the table so, if it requires an overhaul, you do it," Goodell said. "If it requires changes in other areas, you do it. I think, obviously, we haven't been successful to date so we've got to look at every one of those alternatives, and we're going to have other people look at it independently, as well as with us, and bring those ideas."

In March, the NFL announced changes to its Rooney Rule, requiring at least two interviews with persons of color and/or women when filling prominent positions and mandating every team have a woman or person of color serving as an offensive assistant.