Williams: Zac Taylor? Jesse Minter? See who's best coach in AFC North

Ask columnist Jason Williams anything − sports or non-sports – and he’ll pick some of your questions and comments from his inbox and respond on Cincinnati.com. Email: [email protected]

Subject: Zac Taylor, Jesse Minter, Mike McCarthy, Todd Monken. Who's best coach in AFC North?

Message: I saw your column last week talking about whether the Bengals look bad for keeping Zac Taylor when everyone else in the (AFC North) had a coaching vacancy. It got me to thinking: Now that all the division teams have hired coaches, how would you rank them? Can you also give your early 2026 prediction for the division?

Reply: Let's start with the coaches.

1. Jesse Minter, Baltimore: The son of former Cincinnati Bearcats coach Rick Minter is one of the rising stars in the game. Like his dad, Jesse Minter rose up as a defensive coach. His defenses have been successful in college and the NFL, known for being physical and rushing the quarterback. Minter knows the Ravens culture, having been an assistant coach in Baltimore from 2017-2020. He's the only defensive-minded head coach in the division, and serious Super Bowl contenders have outstanding defenses. (Seattle and New England ranked in the top 4 in the league in fewest points allowed this season.) The Ravens see Minter on the same trajectory as their former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who has the Seahawks favored to win the Super Bowl in his second season as head coach.
2. Zac Taylor, Bengals: Best offensive coach in the division. But Taylor has to figure out how to do things differently on defense, because trying to outscore teams isn't a winning strategy. He's been given a defense full of subpar talent. At some point, though, it's on the coaching staff to fix the worst-tackling team in the NFL. And maybe mix up the scheme, blitz more and generally play more aggressive. That ultimately falls on the head coach.
3. Todd Monken, Cleveland: This was a meh hire for the Browns, who needed an established NFL head coach to command respect and fix a dysfunctional culture. Of course, successful head coaches tend to stay away from organizations with an incompetent owner, dysfunctional culture and messy quarterback situation. And so the Browns settled for a rookie NFL head coach. Monken has a mixed-bag of success as an NFL offensive coordinator. He's coming off being the Ravens' offensive coordinator, and Baltimore struggled this season. Monken did show the ability to adjust to a run-focused offense in Baltimore after calling a pass-heavy scheme in Tampa Bay. With Cleveland's stingy defense and Shedeur Sanders at quarterback, developing a successful run-focused offense could be a way to help the Browns at least be more competitive.
4. Mike McCarthy, Pittsburgh: Ho-hum. You're the friggin' Pittsburgh Steelers. Go get an up-and-coming coordinator like you did when the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin in 2007 or an in-his-prime, change-of-scenery guy like former Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott. But a retread like McCarthy? He sat out last season and has won one playoff game since 2016. Snooze.

AFC North prediction

My wee early AFC North division prediction mimics the coach rankings: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

The Ravens will be the only AFC North team to make the playoffs. Baltimore has the best roster, and now the Ravens have a different voice to wake-up a team that got too comfortable under John Harbaugh.

The Bengals will lose a bunch of close games again. The defense isn't fixable in one offseason, at least with how the Bengals operate.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Zac Taylor, Jesse Minter, Mike McCarthy. Ranking AFC North coaches