The faces of the NFL are seemingly getting younger and younger. Look no further than last season’s Super Bowl matchup, pitting two coaches both under the age of 40 in Zac Taylor and Sean McVay.
But the list doesn’t just include those two. There are a number of coaches and executives that are seeing their stars continue to shine brighter and brighter. Lindsay Jones of The Athletic went and listed 40 such names under the age of 40 that are rising in the league. (Subscription required)
The Cincinnati Bengals landed three names on this list, starting with head coach Taylor, age 39:
“Taylor’s job status seemed somewhat shaky heading into the 2021 season. Then he led one of the most impressive worst-to-first turnarounds in NFL history, as the Bengals won two AFC road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl, where they nearly held off the Rams.”
Following Taylor is 38-year-old offensive coordinator Brian Callahan.
“Callahan was a 27-year-old entry-level offensive assistant coach with the Broncoswhen Peyton Manning became Denver’s new quarterback. The subsequent four years they spent together was the equivalent to earning “beyond a Ph.D. in football,” Callahan said.
Now that Callahan is working with Burrow, he finds himself frequently leaning on what he learned with Manning.
“(Manning) forced you to be so thorough. It taught me how to teach quarterbacks and how to give them the right information,” Callahan told The Athletic recently. “My job as a coach in that quarterback room, if you have a quarterback of Joe’s caliber, you want to empower him to have command over the whole thing. Seeing the way Peyton had control over the whole offense, that was valuable to me, and I can impart that to Joe.”
Last but not least is 29-year-old Elizabeth Blackburn, the Bengals director of strategy and engagement, whose parents also came through the ranks in Cincinnati:
“Since then, Blackburn has contributed to the launch of a Ring of Honor at Paul Brown Stadium and to a uniform redesign. She also helped manage a digital content team that finished in the top of the NFL in engagement rates the past two seasons.
“Timing can be everything, and I knew that the franchise and organization was entering into a pivotal chapter,” Blackburn told The Athletic earlier this month. “I thought I had hopefully done enough to have skills to apply on the business side, and I knew I had the energy and passion to come home and be part of this era of Bengals history.”
Just another example of the high times in Cincinnati with numerous rising stars in the ranks sitting in Paul Brown Stadium.
