Bengals’ Darrin Simmons now NFL’s longest-tenured special teams coordinator by large margin

Darrin Simmons has survived several turnovers, and his longevity speaks to how solid he has been for Cincinnati.

This is the time of year when many fans have eyes on the coaching carousel in between playoff games.

The NFL has always been a “what have you done for me lately” league, but since the turn of the millennium, we have seen owners get impatient quicker, with many head coaches seemingly getting only a couple or maybe even one year. That can be even worse for coordinators around the league who can often be scapegoats for a teams struggle.

In the midst of these flurry of moves — that includes Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan taking the head coaching opening for the Tennessee Titans — Bengals fans can appreciate the solid bedrock on their coaching staff that has been special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons.

Simmons joined Cincinnati alongside Marvin Lewis taking over the Bengals. Ever since then, we have not seen a change to that position, nor has it ever really been in doubt. We have seen kickers enjoy high levels of success like Shayne Graham, Mike Nugent, and most recently, Evan McPherson, who kicked two last-second field goals in the 2021 playoff run that sent Cincinnati to the AFC Championship game and then the Super Bowl.

It is also worth noting that Simmons’ 22 seasons with the Bengals are more than any head coach entering the 2024 season as well, with the closest being Mike Tomlin (17 years) and John Harbaugh (16 years).

Simmons survived a couple of times when Lewis had to clean house of his defensive and offensive coordinators, as well as sticking on the team when Zac Taylor came along.

At this point, it seems like Simmons can stick around as long as he’d like. He will head the search for a possible replacement/competition for rookie punter Brad Robbins after a pretty bad season.

Otherwise, it will be bringing along the next Stanley Morgans and Cedric Peermans to be ready for 2024.