Jay Hayes, a 24-year veteran of major college and NFL coaching, is in his 10th season as Bengals defensive line coach. Last season his unit had four players post career highs in sacks as the Bengals earned a Wild Card playoff spot.
Jay Hayes, a 24-year veteran of major college and NFL coaching, is in his 10th season as Bengals defensive line coach. Last season his unit had four players post career highs in sacks as the Bengals earned a Wild Card playoff spot.
Cincinnati’s total of 45 sacks—ranked fifth in the NFL—included 34.5 by the line. The surge was led by the rapid development of DT Geno Atkins, a fourth-round 2010 draft pick who made the Pro Bowl as a second-year player. Atkins’s team-leading 7.5 sacks tied for the NFL lead among interior linemen.
In 2010, Hayes oversaw the development of rookie DE Carlos Dunlap into a producer of 9.5 sacks, a half-sack off the NFL rookie lead. Dunlap’s availability in 2011 was limited due to injuries, but in addition to Atkins, the line got career-high sack performances from DEs Jonathan Fanene (6.5), Michael Johnson (6.0) and Frostee Rucker (4.0).
Overall, the defense finished seventh in the NFL in fewest yards allowed (316.3 per game) and eighth in fewest yards per rushing play (3.9).
NFL trends of recent years have blurred the distinctions between starters and reserves on successful defensive lines, and when all of Hayes’s hands were healthy last year, the Bengals would make regular use of up to eight linemen in a game. When injuries or other factors limited the active field to six or seven players, all would get 20 or more snaps.
“It’s my job to pick somebody to get a spark, so we can have the chemistry and keep it running hot,” Hayes says. “We want to keep getting after people and not let them find room to breathe. If we can continue doing that, we can be successful.”
Hayes came to the Bengals from the Minnesota Vikings, where he was special teams coach in 2002. The ’02 Vikings tied for fifth in the NFL in punt coverage.
Hayes was special teams coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1999-2001. In 1999, under Hayes’s direction, Steelers rookie kicker Kris Brown set an NFL record for most consecutive field goals made to start a career (13).
Before entering the NFL coaching ranks with the Steelers, Hayes coached 11 years at the major college level — at Notre Dame, California and Wisconsin.
He began his coaching career in 1988 as a graduate assistant at Notre Dame, and for the next three seasons, he coached outside linebackers and special teams for the Irish. He moved to California as outside linebackers coach in 1992, and he also held that job in ’93 before adding special teams responsibilities in ’94.
Hayes’s last college assignment before entering the NFL was from 1995-98 at Wisconsin, where he was outside linebackers and special teams coach. Hayes’s Badgers were consistently among the top special teams units in the Big Ten.
Hayes played DE at the University of Idaho and earned all-conference honors in 1980 and ’81. He spent some time in NFL camps before moving on to play in the USFL, for the Michigan Panthers in 1984 and the Memphis Showboats in ’85.
Hayes’s younger brother, Jonathan, is Bengals tight ends coach.
Hayes was born March 3, 1960 in Pittsburgh, and attended South Fayette High School. He and his wife have three children. His son Jesse is a defensive end at Wisconsin, and this year his daughter Jazmin begins a basketball scholarship at Lafayette College (Easton, Pa.).
PLAYING AND COACHING HISTORY - 1978-81: Played defensive end at Univ. of Idaho. 1984: Defensive end, Michigan Panthers (USFL). 1985: Defensive end, Memphis Showboats (USFL). 1988-91: Assistant coach (AC), Notre Dame. 1992-94: AC, California. 1995-98: AC, Wisconsin. 1999-2001: AC, Pittsburgh Steelers. 2002: AC, Minnesota Vikings. 2003-present: AC, Bengals.
