ALAMEDA — Paul Guenther tried to stop Bengals opponents for 13 seasons. On Sunday, he’ll try and stop his longest-tenured employer for the first time.
Guenther served as a defensive assistant in Cincinnati from 2005-13, then as defensive coordinator from 2014-17 before joining Jon Gruden’s staff in 2018. He’ll return to his old home for the first time this weekend when the Raiders (3-10) visit the Bengals (5-8), the only difference his black outfit accompanied by a splash of silver instead of orange.
“Naturally,” Guenther said when asked if there will be any emotion coaching for the visitors in Paul Brown Stadium. “Those people were real good to me. I spent a lot of time with those players and the organization, the Brown family. The coaching staff means a lot to me. They still do. When toe meets leather at 1 o’clock, it’s business. I root for those guys every week and I hope they do good except for one game, which is this one.”
The Bengals’ most prominent players on defense rose to relevance under Guenther, including standout defensive tackle Geno Atkins, defensive end Carlos Dunlap and linebacker Vontaze Burfict. Cincinnati ranked 12th, second, eighth and 16th in the NFL in points allowed per game, respectively, in Guenther’s four seasons as defensive coordinator.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has been in Guenther’s ear this week, picking his brain about the tendencies of players he knows all too well that will try and stop Carr on Sunday.
“Structurally it’s very similar. He asked some questions just about the personnel, some of the guys on defense that I’m familiar with, more so what their abilities are,” Guenther said. “They got a good group of guys over there on defense. I know the season hasn’t gone like they wanted to, but they have a lot of talented veteran players over there, so a lot of respect for those guys.”
This year is a different story for the Bengals’ defense, the only unit worse than the Raiders since Guenther’s departure. The Raiders rank 31st in the league with 29.8 points allowed per game. The Bengals sit 32nd at 30.5. The Bengals already fired Teryl Austin as defensive coordinator this year, and have since replaced him with former Browns head coach Hue Jackson. Riding a five-game losing streak and with Carr playing his best football of the season, Guenther’s former unit again may look nothing like the sturdy defenses he oversaw during his Cincinnati tenure.
Carr hasn’t just leaned on Guenther for tips this week, but Raiders backup quarterback A.J. McCarron. McCarron spent the first four years of his career with the Bengals from 2014-17. He only started three games, however, so he knows the tendencies of some current Bengals defenders well from facing them on scout team over the years.
“Having those guys in our building and A.J. being a close friend, being able to talk to him every day, it’s been really nice,” Carr said.
Guenther’s main focus, though, will be stopping a Bengals offense without starting quarterback Andy Dalton and star wide receiver A.J. Green. Priorities Nos. 1 and 2 instead will be backup quarterback Jeff Driskel and the Bengals’ running backs, Guenther knowing both parties well with Driskel playing for the Bengals since 2016, running back Joe Mixon since 2017 and running back Giovani Bernard since 2013.
Here are Guenther’s thoughts on all three:
On Mixon and Bernard: “He’s a talented guy. Really both backs. I got a lot of respect for both Joe and Giovani Bernard. They’re both really good backs. Gio, he’s a smaller guy height-wise, but he can run with strength and he’s got good short-area quickness. They’re both good backs. Obviously last week was probably one of their best games running the ball (Mixon carried 26 times for 111 yards and a touchdown). I know they’ve been putting an emphasis on that, trying to get him more touches, so we’re gonna have to deal with him and that’s not an easy task.”
On Driskel: “Driskel, he obviously was playing quarterback, but when we needed him to he played receiver and tight end because he’s fast. The guy can run. I mean he’d run a deep post, a couple times he beat our corners. I’m like, ‘Guys, that’s quarterback we gotta cover.’ He’s a good athlete. Obviously he’s done a good job for them coming in with Andy’s injury and he’s handled the offense, it’s looked like, very good.”
But as Carr said this week, knowledgeable scouting reports only mean so much. Guenther may know more about this opponent than any other this season, but after the pregame pleasantries with Marvin Lewis and many others, he still has an offense to stop if the Raiders don’t want to pick first in next year’s draft.
“He did a fine job here. Since he came here with us in 2004, he hustled, did a lot of different things here and did a good job at all of them,” Lewis said of Guenther to Cincinnati reporters this week. “They’ve morphed around defensively this year with the things they’re doing, but they’ve kind of settled in. Obviously, he had great experience coaching against Pittsburgh, so I thought they did a nice job of getting guys to understand, and they played well.”
