New Bengals assistant quarterbacks coach Jordan Salkin, who broke into the profession by sending out 1,500 emails colder than the Freezer Bowl, is on a hot streak.

After serving in his second season with the club as assistant wide receivers coach, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins became the Bengals' first receiver tandem to go to the Pro Bowl in 18 years, and on Friday, Salkin became part of head coach Zac Taylor's minor staff shuffle that brought him back home to the quarterbacks room.

Taylor announced his only addition of the offseason when University of South Carolina assistant quarterbacks coach Davis Koetter replaced Salkin with the receivers.

Two defensive assistants were assigned positions. Ronnie Regula is assistant linebackers coach to Mike Hodges, and Mike Moon is assistant defensive line coach to Jerry Montgomery.

James Casey, who has been Taylor's only tight ends coach in his eight seasons here, is now also run game coordinator.

Taylor didn't have to work as hard to find Salkin as Salkin did to break into coaching a dozen years ago as a volunteer assistant at James Madison. Still, Taylor counted him as a hidden gem on the rise in 2024 when he scooped Salkin from the Oregon quarterbacks room, where Bo Nix had just led the nation in touchdown passes and yards.

The NFL got a glimpse of what Taylor envisioned when Salkin had a fleeting Hard Knocks cameo in that first season, standing in front of the offense delivering one of his brisk, crisp breakdowns of the defense to start the week.

"His presence in front of the room is organized," says Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher. "He knows how to communicate a message, which, for a guy in his role, is important in terms of his growth potential as a coach. He has all that. I expect him to be a good coach in the league for a long time."

Salkin, 33, has already been around a long time with some high-powered quarterbacks. He was in the Texas quarterbacks room when Sam Ehlinger led the Big 12 in touchdown passes, and two years later broke into the league with Miami's quarterbacks as a quality control coach when Tua Tagovailoa found Jaylen Waddle for a rookie-record 104 catches.

But when it comes to having an impact on him, Salkin starts with the last two Bengals quarterbacks coaches, his current boss Brad Kragthorpe, and Pitcher.

"Two highly organized people when it comes to running meetings and presenting their information," Salkin says. "Whether you're presenting information or game-planning, or whatever it is, when you're presenting in front of a position group, or in front of the team, I think you have to know and believe the information. That comes from spending the time on preparation. You have to show it's something you believe in, and you have to have conviction to make the players believe it."

Pitcher, who went through the same path here when he started as an all-purpose assistant working with the receivers before moving to quarterbacks, sees Salkin as an example of the versatility and communication between departments that is the spine of one of the longest-tenured offensive staffs in the league.

"We give Jordan a lot of responsibility outside that room. That's indicative of our staff as a whole," Pitcher says. "We've got a lot of people capable of producing high-level work, and he fits the bill. He touches a lot of things that we do. I trust him implicitly at whatever I give him. I know Zac feels the same way."

Salkin arrived in 2024 as a roaming offensive assistant with his base under Kragthorpe in the quarterbacks room. But Taylor and Pitcher have been at ease giving him a variety of jobs (he spent a bunch of time last year with the tight ends as well as the receivers), and he has settled into that Wednesday morning overview during the season where he outlines the defensive personnel, its scheme and philosophy, as well as the tells, and how and why the offense's game plan fits for that week.

"We put a lot of time into trying to give our guys on offense a head start," Salkin says. "No. 1, the people that they're going to be going against, what they're good at, maybe some areas we can exploit, and how they play technique-wise. But it's more of a general overview."

A year after helping Nix lead the country, he was part of Joe Burrow's best season, when Burrow led the NFL in the same categories. Like Burrow, Nix is a coach's son whose first language is a playbook, and that has helped Salkin's transition here.

"You have to be prepared with guys like that," Salkin says. "Bo is very much like Joe. Highly intelligent. They want to know the how and the why, and they're going to have an idea of the defense and how they want to attack it themselves. You have to have high-level discussions about those ideas.

"It's the hardest position in sports. It's always on that guy to go out and do uncommon things in order to get your team to win. Our job is to help them prepare. There are only so many hours in a day. Our job is to simplify and expedite that process so they go out on game day feeling confident in what they're going to see."

Salkin knows it's a tough room. And embraces it, knowing the no-nonsense Burrow has time only for excelling.

"He sets the bar high," says Salkin, in the process of building his own high bar. "Which is great. That's what you want in your program. It's not only coaches that make players better, but it's also players that make coaches better. Where everybody is held to a high standard."