“I think we live in a generation where everybody is so easily accessible. It’s hard to avoid the noise from the outside. When you’re in the spotlight like a Coach Tomlin, it’s hard to make everybody happy,” Brown says. “When you’ve been somewhere for so long, and although he’s been very successful, I think it begins to feel like it’s not enough listening to the outside noise.”

Not that there isn’t some happiness, Brown says, now that Tomlin is gone. His departure leaves the Steelers without his grim take-no-prisoners tenacity that drove them for nearly 20 years. It’s hard to get out of rolling around in the mud with Tomlin unscathed. Harbaugh was 17-23 against him. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was 6-8. Brown was 6-7 against Tomlin in starts for the Ravens, Chiefs, and Bengals.

“It’s really unfortunate because of the impact that he’s had on so many men in the NFL who have played for that organization and who speak highly of him,” Brown says. “Every time we’ve played them, he’s come up and spoken to me. I really have respect for Coach Tomlin.”

If the Ravens have defense and the Steelers have history, then the Bengals have their own legacy of cutting-edge offenses driven by creative coaches, smart, deadly quarterbacks and gifted skill players. Taylor has kept the legacy intact and flowering.

Brown is quite comfortable in Cincinnati with Taylor. Since Taylor arrived in the AFC North in 2019, he quietly went to more AFC title games than Tomlin and Harbaugh combined, won as many division titles as Harbaugh, and beat Tomlin with everyone from Ryan Finley to Joe Flacco to Joe Lee Burrow.

“I’ve said this before. I’d kill for Zac,” Brown says. “In terms of our effort, our blue-collar work ethic, I think that’s where we really separate ourselves from other organizations and teams. Our culture is unique in that way.”

Brown has played in too many AFC North games (38) to make any declarations. He began life watching this division, back when it was the old AFC Central, where his dad, Orlando “Zeus,” Brown Sr. played 48 games. He has been in too many surprises to listen to the pundits espousing how the Bengals have an edge in a division with all new coaching staffs but their own.

Just more noise, Brown says, as he seeks a third division title with a third team.

“It starts with me as a leader taking this offseason grind to the next level,” Brown says. “And when we get back here in April, help re-establish that culture of who we are, how we work, and what we do going into training camp.”

He’s thrilled that Taylor has outlasted Harbaugh, Tomlin, and the noise.

“It’s taken for granted from the outside world when it comes to Zac and its noise,” Brown says. “I’m very thankful that ownership and everybody has been able to come together on the same page and proceed to stick together and work as one.

“When it comes to Zac, in terms of his ability to motivate his players, to always keep an ear to the locker room, to be able to manage the personalities that he’s asked to manage, from coaches to players, to me, it speaks volumes. There are a lot of things that go unseen, in terms of his operation, how he works, his determination, so many different things. I have tons of respect for Zac.”

Their offense that can beat anybody, anywhere returns intact in this division of suddenly new labor. The offseason grind? Brown says it starts for him this week at Paycor. A little more than two weeks after the latest AFC North grind that remains a grind no matter the hires.

“We’re close, though,” Brown says, “and I think in all reality, our division knows that.”