{"id":42343,"date":"2026-01-25T00:19:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=42343"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:19:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:19:42","slug":"surprising-nfl-coaching-hire-keeps-the-door-open-for-bengals-to-maintain-familiarity-on-their-2026-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=42343","title":{"rendered":"Surprising NFL coaching hire keeps the door open for Bengals to maintain familiarity on their 2026 schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/.image\/w_3840,q_auto:good,c_limit\/Mzk6MDAwMDAwMDAwMzg5NjM3\/usatsi_27605768.jpg?arena_f_auto\" alt=\"Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle B.J. Hill (92) and defensive end Myles Murphy (99) sack Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) in the second quarter of the NFL Week 11 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. The Steelers led 10-6 at halftime.\" \/><\/p>\n<p data-wp-block-name=\"core\/paragraph\" data-wp-block=\"{&quot;dropCap&quot;:false}\">The\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals\u00a0are watching the rest of the AFC North figure things out. The\u00a0Baltimore Ravens\u00a0recently hired former\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers\u00a0defensive coordinator\u00a0Jesse Minter as their next head coach, and the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0followed by hiring former\u00a0Green Bay Packers\u00a0and\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0HC\u00a0Mike McCarthy\u00a0to take over as their next coach.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy interviewed with the Steelers earlier in the week, but the favorite to land the gig was\u00a0Los Angeles Rams\u00a0DC Chris Shula. Despite being a Pittsburgh native, McCarthy actually landing his third NFL head-coaching job was a surprising development out of the City of Bridges.<\/p>\n<p>It also keeps the door open for the Steelers to keep the same quarterback as last year, leading to two more matchups against Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"bengals-could-very-well-face-aaron-rodgers-again-in-2026\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-m-font-size\">Bengals could very well face Aaron Rodgers again in 2026<\/h2>\n<p data-wp-block-name=\"core\/paragraph\" data-wp-block=\"{&quot;dropCap&quot;:false}\">McCarthy\u2019s hiring indicates Pittsburgh is not intending on entering a rebuild. The Rooney family wants to win now, and hiring a 62-year old HC with a career winning percentage of 60.8%, and a Super Bowl victory (at their expense) reflects that thinking entirely.<\/p>\n<p>That alone makes the return of QB Aaron Rodgers a strong possibility. Add on that McCarthy was Rodgers\u2019 coach for 13 years, and you\u2019ve got an extremely likely scenario set to unfold.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers joined the Steelers because of Mike Tomlin, and when Tomlin stepped down earlier this month, the future of Rodgers\u2019 playing career seemed to be anywhere but Pittsburgh. The hiring of his former coach has a chance to flip the script.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There was belief in the building that hiring Mike McCarthy could bring Aaron Rodgers back in the fold. Now we\u2019ll see what the QB does. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7Y5kBrJKV0\">https:\/\/t.co\/7Y5kBrJKV0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bepryor\/status\/2015131314001789341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 24, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-wp-block-name=\"core\/paragraph\" data-wp-block=\"{&quot;dropCap&quot;:false}\">The Bengals are 2-3 all-time against McCarthy, including their Week 2 loss in 2022 when he was coaching Dallas at the time. They\u2019re 2-2 against McCarthy when he had Rodgers as his QB.<\/p>\n<p data-wp-block-name=\"core\/paragraph\" data-wp-block=\"{&quot;dropCap&quot;:false}\">Rodgers, who turned 42 in December, managed to win 10 games as Pittsburgh\u2019s starting QB, throwing for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions. The Steelers won the AFC North, but fell flat in their lone playoff appearance, losing 30-6 to the\u00a0Houston Texans\u00a0in the Wild Card Round. Rodgers threw for just 146 yards, and his last throw of the game was a pick-six.<\/p>\n<p>One of those 10 wins came against Cincy in Week 11, but the Bengals got the best of him on \u201cThursday Night Football\u201d in their thrilling 33-31 victory in Week 7.<\/p>\n<p data-wp-block-name=\"core\/paragraph\" data-wp-block=\"{&quot;dropCap&quot;:false}\">Rodgers joining the Steelers wasn\u2019t confirmed until last June, well into the 2025 offseason. His potential return could take an equal amount of time, but his former coach being hired by the team he just played for makes his return very plausible, and would give Cincinnati some familiarity when forecasting an otherwise unpredictable AFC North landscape next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Surprising NFL coaching hire keeps the door open for Bengals to maintain familiarity on their 2026 schedule - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=42343\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Surprising NFL coaching hire keeps the door open for Bengals to maintain familiarity on their 2026 schedule - 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