Bill Lazor's varied background sets up Cincinnati Bengals' offensive future

Jim Owczarski | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Cincinnati Bengals Andy Dalton talks offensive coordinator Bill Lazor Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton talks about offensive coordinator Bill Lazor and implementing a new system.

Bill Lazor stood alone in an empty locker room.

The Cincinnati Bengals were two days removed from a season-ending 27-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, but a 7-9 season. He just endured a lengthy press conference that introduced him as the team’s offensive coordinator, but the focus was on head coach Marvin Lewis.

Lazor sat to Lewis’ left and fielded seven questions. He smiled. He quipped. He exuded confidence. He wasn't really pressed for his plans for the offense, though.

Afterward, Lazor looked over the deserted orange and black work space. There is comfort there.

He would remain in Cincinnati for his third season with the promise of a fourth in 2019, which would match the longest he had been in any one spot since leaving Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to begin his coaching odyssey in 2001. The wandering of a coach never truly ceases, the tests never over. Yet, at 45 years old and seven states and some 9,500 miles traveled later, Lazor has perhaps found some semblance of home once again.

“I’m probably different now than I was five, certainly 10 years ago in my career,” he admitted. “In that, 15 years ago, you’re trying to get to the next big thing. Become this level coach. Or if you ever make it to the NFL. Now, I’ve done a lot of those things. What’s really important now is who am I with and the opportunity to win. Because I can always go up and down and in and out of all these different organizations but at some point, you want your legacy in coaching to be winning a championship.

“And because we’re all human, and life’s short, you want to do it with people you enjoy being with. So to me, who are you doing it with and do you have a chance to win? I very quickly in a couple days decided that yes, I can do that here, get both those things checked off here.”

A football mind

Bengals offensive coordinator Bill Lazor Bengals offensive coordinator Bill Lazor talks about his dedication to revitalizing the offense on Jan. 3

Lazor smiles at the memory. He can, now.

It was early in the 1991 season for Cornell University, and head coach Jim Hofher pulled his sophomore quarterback over on the sideline.

If you don’t score a touchdown on this drive you’re out of the game.

The 19-year-old wasn’t thrilled. But he did lead the Big Red to the end zone.

“Maybe, he found a way – and again I thought it was unfair and I was pissed – but maybe that got me to play better,” Lazor said, allowing himself a laugh. “I have never used that exact statement to anyone. But it’s just an example of OK, sometimes as a coach and as a teacher you’ve got to find a way to get to them.”

Lazor would grow from there into an all-time great for the Ivy League institution, breaking 26 offensive records. He was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2012.

That success, however, wasn’t leading to a professional career. Or Wall Street. No, the human development and family studies degree and a love of competition steered Lazor to the sidelines next to his head coach after he graduated in 1994. It was the first step in a coaching journey that would send him from one end of the country to the other over the next 15 years.

And that early example from Hofher’s, that a coach could make his quarterback uncomfortable yet get him to rise to a challenge, would prove to be a valuable lesson for Lazor. A quarter-century later, it's part of Lazor's stated plan for Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton this season – one of the few early messages Lazor sent in that January press conference.

Lazor's multifarious coaching background has gotten him more than ready to impart such lessons.

When Hofher moved on to coach the University of Buffalo in 1997, Lazor remained at Cornell under new head coach Pete Mangurian. But in 2001 Hofher hired Lazor again – this time as youngest offensive coordinator in Division I at 29-years-old.

While Lazor was calling plays in Amherst, New York, Mangurian was recommending him to Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Reeves to fill an offensive quality control position. That job pulled Lazor to the NFL in 2003 and he immediately impressed.

“He was just a bright a guy as I’ve ever been around offensively,” Reeves said.

Another coach on that staff, Rennie Simmons, then recommended Lazor to Joe Gibbs. Off to Washington from 2004-07. Then, he joined Mike Holmgren and Seattle from 2008-09. Then off to the University of Virginia from 2010-12. Chip Kelly pulled Lazor back to the NFL in 2013 to coach the quarterbacks in Philadelphia.

“His experiences are rare,” Gibbs said. “Somebody that’s totally committed to his profession, willing to move to all the different places he’s been and take his family.”

Such experience and flexibility led Lazor to Miami head coach Joe Philbin, who was looking for a new offensive coordinator for the Dolphins in 2014.

“Adaptability, flexibility, he had creativity. He definitely possesses a lot of those characteristics,” Philbin said. “He had been exposed to a lot.”

It would be Lazor’s first shot at play-calling in the NFL, and it was impressive in the context of the career-best seasons of quarterback Ryan Tanenehill, running back Lamar Miller and wide receiver Jarvis Landry.

“It was fun to really watch him work and how aggressive he was as play caller and see it all come together for him,” said Zac Taylor, the former University of Cincinnati offensive coordinator who was Lazor’s quarterbacks coach in Miami.

“He’s able to adapt to what you have on offense. I think that’s kind of where his creativity comes to light.”

That offseason, something else clicked for Lazor.

While enjoying time with his son Nolan and watching the Super Bowl between New England and Seattle, Lazor was a bit … uncomfortable.

“The frustration of sitting home,” he said. “During it just thinking; I’m not going to feel satisfied until that’s us.”

That year, however, the Dolphins couldn’t build on their 8-8 campaign. A 1-3 start led to Philbin’s firing on Oct. 5, 2015. On Nov. 30, Lazor was also dismissed.

For the first time since … who knows when … a season was drawing to a close and Lazor was sitting home.

“When you’re young in coaching and you’re looking at what is bigger or what is better,” Lazor admitted. “That’s just, like most people, I think that’s human nature, right? That’s ambition.

“At some point, I think, you just get the perspective. Maybe you’ve reached the coordinator job or you’ve done it in the NFL and what looked like the shiny red apple that was out there to go after, you’ve seen it enough times to know there’s problems everywhere and there’s issues everywhere.”

A steady hand

On Sept. 15, 2017, Lazor was thrust into a precarious situation.

Thrust into the offensive coordinator position after two straight losses and zero touchdowns amidst a locker room in disarray – everyone finds out quickly exactly who you are and what you can do.

“Everybody’s looking at you,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. “And you’ve got to come out of it and have a new course of action and it’s got to be immediate and it’s got to be direct and effective. I think he proved that to people through that. He didn’t hang his head. We had to get going, and we did.”

First, Lazor had to get the offense to score points. He then had to get Andy Dalton on track and do it with a deteriorating offensive line, injured and unhappy wide receivers and a carousel at running back.

“What you saw last year was a steady hand on the wheel,” said Hofher, now an offensive analyst and assistant to the head coach at Iowa State.

Lewis agreed, which is why he wasted no time in retaining Lazor once the head coach re-signed in January.

“His ability to adjust within the players, injuries and all that – that’s really important,” Lewis said. “A lot of people can’t do that. Sometimes people just want to throw their hands up in the air as opposed to already be working on the solution ... it shows a lot of character in people to deal with that.”

An offense outside of the box

Organized team activities start this week and mark the first time the Bengals are completely together on the field in 2018. After 14 games of working within the framework of a different playbook a year ago, this is now Lazor’s offense.

But what, exactly, is that?

“I think it would be wrong to say it,” he said. “It’s hard for me even to say it.”

It’s natural to look back, however, for clues. Yet Lazor waves off any idea that one could turn on Dolphins film – or even the end of the 2017 Bengals season – and assume anything about what his offense will look like this year. All you can glean from his varied background is an outline that Lazor will fill in specifically with his 2018 roster.

“Some of the greatest influences aren’t going to be the plays or formations,” Lazor said. “It’s going to be more the overall framework, the mindset. That’s a system of offense. A system is how you communicate. Is how you teach it. How you install it. How you get the quarterback and receivers on exactly the same page for what adjustments need to be made. It’s how the center makes the calls. That’s what a system is.”

Philbin believes Lazor is already ahead of where he was in Miami because he has worked with these players. And frankly, he has to be. The Bengals were last in the NFL in offense in 2017, 31st in rushing, 27th in passing and 26th in scoring.

“We’ve got some stats that were really bad,” Lazor said. “If you just stay with everyone comfortable, how are you going to change those things? There’s got to be some change. There’s got to be.”

As for what that change is – you’ll have to wait for that answer. Just don’t assume it’s going to fit neatly in a box.

“I don’t know that I would describe him in one particular way,” Philbin said. “I think he’s got an innovative, flexible approach to throwing the football, to running the football. He’s got a very, very vast knowledge of the game and I think he’s going to tailor all those experiences and do the things he feels like the players can do best.”

Lazor is purposefully vague when pressed on what he’ll run.

You’ll know it when you see it, basically. It’s perhaps the greatest lesson he took from the men he learned offense under.

“Maybe they didn’t put it in words, like some snappy catch phrase, but you knew they knew what it’s supposed to be looking like,” Lazor said. “Each of them could stand on the practice field, each of those guys, or watch the practice film and tell you this is off, this isn’t right, and kind of keep guiding the vision. That’s probably the one common theme.”

The locker room inside Paul Brown Stadium is bustling now.

Ninety-one men are housed close together, digesting a new playbook, learning one another and a new coaching staff. It’s loud, lively. But there’s a seriousness behind it.

“You just have to keep in mind the ultimate goal is to be the Super Bowl champs,” Lazor said, once again noting the emptiness caused by watching others hoist the Lombardi Trophy the last three seasons. “So we need an offense that’s worthy of that. And that might mean doing some uncomfortable things."

His vision must become tangible in the form of yards, points and victories. It’s not a sexy process. He calls it a grind, but he loves the competition. And it takes time. Yet come Sept. 9 at Indianapolis, there is no time but the present – a present with an eye on February.

“We might need to change some things," he said. "Even though something got us to five straight playoffs, if it was preventing us from going further, maybe there’s something that can get us a little further. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable to let go what has gotten you so far, because it is pretty good, but we‘ve got to make sure pretty good isn’t good enough.”