Cincinnati Bengals finalize coaching staff, hire two assistants

March 7 (UPI) -- The Cincinnati Bengals hired two assistant coaches Thursday, finalizing their coaching staff for 2019.

Mark Duffner joins the AFC North franchise as a senior defensive assistant, while Gerald Chatman is coming on as a defensive assistant.

Duffner, 65, spent the last three seasons as the linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He served as the Buccaneers' defensive coordinator for the final 11 games of the 2018 season after the team made coaching staff changes.

He spent the 1997 through 2002 seasons on the Bengals' coaching staff. Duffner was the Bengals' defensive coordinator in 2001 and 2002. He has 45 years of coaching experience, including 22 yards in the NFL. Duffner has also worked on the staffs of the Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins.

Chatman, 30, was the defensive ends/outside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at Tennessee State University for the last two seasons. He was the defensive line coach at Elon University in 2016. Chatman also served as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M, defensive line coach and assistant recruiting coordinator at Butler, defensive graduate assistant at Ball State and defensive line coach at Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

He interned for multiple off-seasons for the Denver Broncos, Bengals and Packers.

The Bengals now have 22 assistant coaches and a director of coaching operations under first-year head coach Zac Taylor. Taylor joined the Bengals staff in February, two days after he had served as a Los Angeles Rams' quarterbacks coach during a loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.