The defensive issues that contributed to the Cincinnati Bengals missing the playoffs led to major changes on Monday, when four assistants were fired — three on that side of the ball.

The story of the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals was a rare one. It's unusual to see a quarterback play at an MVP level, like Joe Burrow did, and his team miss the playoffs. Someone had to pay the price, and it was clear that would be.

Failure to make the playoffs in a season of top-tier individual performances meant drastic changes needed to be made.