In preparation for divisional play, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor brought in offensive line guru Bill Callahan’s disciple Scott Peters to coach his line.
Peters returns to the AFC North after one season as the Patriots’ offensive line coach. Before heading to New England last season, Peters served the previous four years as Callahan’s assistant offensive line coach for a Browns team that finished at least 12th in the NFL.
Peters brings Michael McCarthy, his assistant to Foxborough, as well as seven seasons in the NFL as a player.
“It’s my favorite division in the entire NFL, with the competitive nature and rivalries,” Peters said Monday during his first day on the job at Paycor Stadium. “I’m excited to be here in Cincinnati and to start again from a different perspective.
“There is good continuity in the division, so we know the opponents well. We are familiar with that and that is important.”
Peters, 46, a former NFL guard and center and former coach of UFC champions Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, has never played in the AFC North during stints with five teams. But he comes with plenty of ties to the Bengals.
Callahan, the father of former Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, was Taylor’s head coach at Nebraska. Peters was a rising guru himself who founded the Tip of the Spear academy that teaches players to rely on their hands and shoulders rather than their heads when he was recommended to Callahan by the former Bengals offensive line coach Jim McNally.
Callahan brought Peters to the Commanders as a consultant when he coached Washington’s offensive line, then took him to Cleveland as an assistant.
“He painted a model for me as a coach,” Peters said. “Just the way he approached everything. It’s so well thought out. The details are there. The way you attack an opponent, the way you prepare your players. Soup to nuts. That’s why he such a great reputation.”
While with the Browns, one guard, Wyatt Teller, went to three straight Pro Bowls. Fellow Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio made the jump to back-to-back All-Pro first teams in 2021 and 2022 under Callahan and Peters.
During their years in Cleveland, the Browns finished third, fourth, sixth and 12th in the NFL, and Peters is looking to bring that same mentality to I-71.
“I want to bring a certain level of toughness and the mindset of protectors,” Peters said. “Protectors do it with more than the shield. We do it with the sword. Giving guys tools, giving them mentality, improving certain things to equip them for different types of opponents.
“There are some great edge rushers in this league, so it helps the protection unit while also bringing something to the running game in terms of being able to dominate people. Hit them. Keep the defense off balance.”
McCarthy, 38, joined Peters in New England after serving four years as offensive line coach at Brown. A Staten Island native who played linebacker and worked a long stint at Widener University on Long Island, McCarthy began his career as a scouting/video intern with the Jets before quality control stopped in Cleveland in 2015 and in Detroit in 2016-17.
