Mark

Duffner

Duffner served as Tampa Bay’s interim DC after Mike Smith’s midseason firing last year but was later replaced by Todd Bowles, a long-time confidante of Bruce Arians. This is Duffner’s second stint with the Bengals after serving as the team’s LBs coach and later DC from 1997-2002. The long-time assistant will try to take some of the pressure off first-time DC Lou Anarumo, who was hired away from the Giants last month.

A 65-year-old journeyman, Duffner has been coaching NFL linebackers in some capacity since 1997. He was the Bengals’ defensive coordinator in 2001-02. Those teams were historically bad. Anyone should be an improvement on Mike Smith, but it’s hard to see how Duffner is going to alter the fate of the Bucs’ wow-bad defense.