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It’s believed in league circles that the next coach of the Bengals will be Hue Jackson (with Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator) or Vance Joseph (with Hue Jackson as offensive coordinator). So why not really shake things up and do something completely different?

At one point, Michael Scott and Jim Halpert were co-managers of Dunder Mifflin, Scranton branch. Maybe that’s the right answer for the perpetually wrongly-directed Bengals, as crazy as it may sound. (And, yes, it sounds crazy.)

But it’s not unprecedented. In 1953, the Packers had co-head coaches. (Sure, it lasted only for the last two games of the season.) Ten years before that, the merged Steelers and Eagles franchise (the Steagles) employed both Walt Kiesling and Greasy Neale as co-head coaches.

Why not make Jackson the head coach/offense and Joseph the head coach/defense? Give one guy responsibility for each side of the ball, let the special-teams coordinator report to both of them, and see what happens?

Jackson would call the offensive plays, and Joseph would support Jackson with broader topics like clock management. Joseph would call the defensive plays, and Jackson would support Joseph.

I’m mostly joking, but a little serious. If neither guy is able to thrive in the job alone, why not split the job in two? With both guys operating under the terms of a buyout for at least the next season, the Bengals possibly get them to do it for the total cost of one total head coach.

Again, it’s crazy. It’s over the top. It’s one the wrong side of the fine line that separates outside the box from f–kin’ nutty.

But ask yourself this. A week ago, which possibility would have sounded more ridiculous, entrusting an NFL franchise to two men with NFL head-coaching experience (and the contacts to fill out a staff) or hiring as an NFL head-coach a guy who has no NFL coaching experience, who has precious few NFL coaching contacts, who went 35-40 at Texas Tech, who got fired from that job in November, and who quickly took a job as offensive coordinator at USC in December?