Teryl Austin is the Bengals’ next defensive coordinator

The Detroit Lions can add one more position to their job openings. According to ESPN’s Josina Anderson, Teryl Austin will be accepting the defensive coordinator job for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Though Austin technically remains under contract with the Detroit Lions, it is assumed that since the team allowed him to interview for the position, they will be willing to let him take the job.

Obviously, this takes Austin out of the running for Detroit’s head coaching position, for which he interviewed last week—along with offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter. This also takes Austin out of consideration for the Raiders’ defensive backs coach job, which was reportedly offered to him by Jon Gruden and company.

Detroit fired Jim Caldwell and Ron Prince last week, leaving them now with three job openings to fill for the 2018 season: head coach, offensive line coach and now defensive coordinator. With the Lions reportedly closing in on a head coaching candidate “in the next day or so,” we could see the dominos start to fall very soon.

UPDATE: The Bengals have officially announced that Austin is their new defensive coordinator: