Zac Taylor apparently tried to get Bears' Ben Johnson on Bengals staff

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has made a handful of notable changes to his coaching staff over the years.

There were smaller ones, like ending the odd era of former line coach Jim Turner.

And then there were big ones, like last offseason’s blowup, headlined by the dismissal of Lou Anarumo at defensive coordinator and the hiring of Al Golden in his place.

As it turns out, at least at one point, Taylor had his eye on a major name like current Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson.

“He was looking for any way he could to get Ben in the building because he had such high regard for him as a coach and he knew that anything he was tasked with, he would do at a super high level,” Chicago Tribune reporter Brad Biggs said.

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The what if? Game will be fun on this one for Bengals fans. Johnson has directed the Bears to a shocking 9-3 turnaround this year after being a hot head-coach commodity.

Taylor at least attempting to make it happen in Cincinnati speaks well to his coaching targets for his staff. But it was clear to pretty much everyone that Johnson was headed for much bigger things.

Over the years, Taylor has needed to loop back to his smaller coaching tree than most, with varying results. But this little nugget at least shows that he also makes attempts at bis splashes outside of it, too.

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This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Zac Taylor apparently tried to get Bears' Ben Johnson on Bengals staff