Cincinnati Bengals land three big names on ’40 under 40′ list

“Taylor’s job status seemed somewhat shaky heading into the 2021 season. Then he led one of the most impressive worst-to-first turnarounds in NFL history, as the Bengals won two AFC road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl, where they nearly held off the Rams.”

“Callahan was a 27-year-old entry-level offensive assistant coach with the Broncoswhen Peyton Manning became Denver’s new quarterback. The subsequent four years they spent together was the equivalent to earning “beyond a Ph.D. in football,” Callahan said.

Now that Callahan is working with Burrow, he finds himself frequently leaning on what he learned with Manning.

“(Manning) forced you to be so thorough. It taught me how to teach quarterbacks and how to give them the right information,” Callahan told The Athletic recently. “My job as a coach in that quarterback room, if you have a quarterback of Joe’s caliber, you want to empower him to have command over the whole thing. Seeing the way Peyton had control over the whole offense, that was valuable to me, and I can impart that to Joe.”

“Since then, Blackburn has contributed to the launch of a Ring of Honor at Paul Brown Stadium and to a uniform redesign. She also helped manage a digital content team that finished in the top of the NFL in engagement rates the past two seasons.

“Timing can be everything, and I knew that the franchise and organization was entering into a pivotal chapter,” Blackburn told The Athletic earlier this month. “I thought I had hopefully done enough to have skills to apply on the business side, and I knew I had the energy and passion to come home and be part of this era of Bengals history.”