The Cincinnati Bengals hired Justin Rascat as the team’s passing game coordinator, promoted Brad Kragthorpe to running backs coach and Jordan Kovacs to secondary/safeties coach, the team announced Thursday.Passing coordinator is the team’s new position, while Kovacs takes over the position previously held by Robert Livingston, who is reportedly set to become the Colorado Buffaloes’ defensive coordinator. Kragthorpe fills the vacancy left by Dan Pitcher, who was recently promoted to offensive coordinator.
Rascati comes to Cincinnati from the Minnesota Vikings, where he spent the last two seasons (2022-23) as an assistant offensive line coach. He previously served as the offensive quality control coach for the Denver BroPrior to his NFL coaching career, Rascati spent seven years in assistant roles at the college level. He served as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (2017-18), offensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech University (16), passing coordinator/wide receivers coach at the University of Tennessee-Martin (14-15) and quarterbacks. coach at Weber State University (12-13).Rascati began his collegiate career as a QB at the University of Louisville in 2003 before transferring to James Madison University. He rushed for 5,
912 yards and 51 TDs in three seasons at JMU (2004-06) and helped lead the Dukes to a 13-2 record and the program’s first FCS national championship iKragthorpe completed his fifth season on the Bengals coaching staff and first season as assistant quarterbacks coach in 2023. He served as an assistant coach the past two seasons (2021-22) after serving as an offensive assistant in 2019-20.Kragthorpe spent the 2018 season as an offensive analyst at Louisiana State University, working with an offense that featured Bengals QB Joe Burrow and WR Ja’Marr Chase. He began his coaching career as an offensive assistant coach at Utah State University (2016-17).As a player, Kragthorpe spent one season at Idaho State University (2011) before transferring to LSU for the final three years.
He played 25 games as a backup QB and placekicker for the Tigers.Kovacs finished his fifth season on the Bengals coaching staff in 2023. He spent the last two seasons (2022-2023) as an assistant coach, going 19-21. Like Kragthorpe, he showed leadership, intelligence and developmental qualities that proved valuable to the coaching staff.Kovacs came to Cincinnati after spending two seasons (2017-18) as the coach at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, where his college career began as a coach and ended with a second-team selection. and the captain.Kovacs played in 28 NFL games over three seasons (2013-2015) as a linebacker for the Miami Dolphins. He also spent time on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2014, as well as the Kansas City Chiefs and L.A. With the Rams in early ’16..ncos from 2019-21..
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