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When Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis hired Jay Gruden as his offensive coordinator in 2011, one of the first things Gruden tried to do was hire McVay away from Washington, where he had just turned 25 and was an offensive assistant, and made him receivers coach.
But Washington wouldn’t let him go to the Bengals, and with McVay as tight ends coach, Gruden went with James Urban. Gruden recognized McVeigh during his time with the Buccaneers and took him to the UFL.
“It worked out well for everybody because James was great,” said Gruden, now a Rams consultant and former coach of Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson.
“And if Washington had given[McVay]the go-ahead, history would have stayed the same. When I became the head coach, I would have hired him in Washington (2014), made him the youngest offensive coordinator ever, and he would have left after a few years. And they won the Super Bowl.”
Which is, what happened. Gruden seems to know what’s in McVay and McVay knows what’s in Taylor.
On Wednesday, it was all business.
Seeing a lead, McVay admired, Bengals free safety Jesse Bates III made sure to walk off the field. Since Bates signed his franchise tender on Tuesday, he hasn’t been practicing yet and McVay wanted to let him know how well he thought he would handle the contract situation.
“He gave me love,” Bates said. “He said he studied me before our game and he has a lot of respect for how I play the game and the type of player I am.”
It was all very professional and business like.
On the next-to-last play of the Bengals’ defensive series, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie knocked down a deep pass from the man who killed the Bengals on the final drive and is now in the 2022 NFL record and fact book as the Super Bowl MVP.
Cooper Coop said something like “Sweet, Chido” or something like that after the game. They have the same agent and were workout partners before the draft, so they know each other. And Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford knows it after picking off Awzi in the Super Bowl.
“We see it every day. We have a few guys like that ourselves,” Awzi said. “It’s a pretty good measuring stick. (Cupp) went back (to the huddle) and said he tried to show his hands late, but he didn’t get me. Ja’Mar (Chase) did a good job on that. I don’t understand.”
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