Two Coaches, Both Coaches' Sons, Lead Cincinnati Bengals

Bob Bratkowski was once The Next Big Thing.

Mike Zimmer is currently The Next Big Thing.

But the Cincinnati Bengals' offensive and defensive coordinators have much more in common than that.

Both are the sons of coaches. Both took similar routes to the NFL. And both have the utmost confidence they can revive a Bengals team which finished 4-11-1 in 2008.

Bratkowski, entering his ninth season as the team's offensive coordinator, said their confidence comes from their backgrounds as coaches' sons.

His father, Zeke, spent 14 years as NFL quarterback and 26 years as an NFL assistant.

"Anybody that goes into the same profession as their father, whether it's a plumber, stockbroker, insurance salesman—if you do anything your father did you know the ropes," he said.

Despite their similarities, however, Bratkowski and Zimmer enter 2009 at far different points in their career.

Bratkowski, once considered something of a genius, has fallen out of favor with Cincinnati's fan base. The Bengals trudged to the NFL's worst offense in 2009, averaging just 245 yards and 12.8 points per game.

They didn't have Carson Palmer. Or a healthy and committed Chad Johnson. But fans want Bratkowski gone anyway. Someone even started a "Fire Bratkowski Now!" petition on a popular local blog.

For Bratkowski, who has experienced nothing but success throughout the last two decades, it's an odd experience.

In 1989 and 1991, Bratkowski won two national championships as the offensive coordinator at the University of Miami.

He then transformed the Seattle Seahawks into the most potent passing offense in the NFL in the mid-1990s.

After a brief stint with Pittsburgh, Bratkowski joined the Bengals, and between 2005 and 2007, orchestrated one the league's top-five aerial attacks.

Yet in 12 months, the fiery, 55-year-old Texan went from whiz kid to whipping boy. He knows he must turn the offense around quickly.

"It comes with the territory," he said. "It's short-lived and what have you done lately."

Bratkowski said once the offensive line gels—which features three new starters with almost no experience—the offense has a chance to be "really good."
 
"We've got some issues to deal with but any time you've got a guy like Carson Palmer at quarterback, you can turn it around very quickly," he added.

Unlike Bratkowski, Zimmer enters 2009 as the rising star of the coaching staff.

In his first season with the Bengals, Zimmer saw the team's defense improve from 27th worst to 12th best in the NFL.

Youngsters Antwan Odom (DE), Domata Peko (DT), Keith Rivers (LB), Leon Hall (CB) and Chinedum Ndukwe (S) all blossomed under Zimmer's tutelage, and with the additions of draft picks Rey Maualuga (LB) and Michael Johnson (DE), as well as free agents Tank Johnson (DT) and Roy Williams (S), many expect Zimmer to elevate this unit into a top-five defense.

Like Bratkowski, Zimmer attributes much of success to being the son of a coach. His dad, Bill, also played for the San Francisco 49ers.

"He was always fanatical about trying to stay one step ahead of everybody," Zimmer recalled about his father. "He wasn't afraid to try things. I thought of that when I went from a 4-3 to a 3-4. I thought about my dad going from the wishbone to the run-and-shoot. He didn't care."

"I'm big on technique," he added. "I want to make sure guys do the things we're asking to do to do it right. Play hard all the time. Hands in the right place. Feet in the right place.

I think in pro football a lot guys get to the point where they worry so much about who you're playing or the scheme, your technique goes bad. ...Typically I'm a little bit of a hollerer and screamer."

Zimmer has been doing it right for a long time. He did it as a rookie secondary coach when the 1995 Cowboys won the Super Bowl and he put cornerback Larry Brown in the right spot to intercept two passes and win the MVP award.

He did it in 2003 when he had a starting rookie cornerback in Terence Newman and the Cowboys blitzed their way to a No. 1 ranking. Then he did it in 2005 and 2006 in that new 3-4 scheme and coaxed out rankings of 13 and 10.

Many organizations and pundits have already pegged him as a future head coach. But for now, Zimmer is jut focused on turning the Bengals into a winning team.

"I think we've got a good nucleus of guys," he said. They all work hard. They all play hard. And now we've got some veteran guys to help bring some of the young guys along. That'll help us."