By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Three NFL head coaches were fired Monday, and one of them - former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin - already is being mentioned as a candidate in Cincinnati.

Coughlin, the Bengals' Dick LeBeau and Dallas' Dave Campo were all relieved of their duties one day after ending disappointing seasons with losses.

While the futures of the Bengals' 15 assistant coaches remain in doubt, two of them - defensive coordinator Mark Duffner and running backs coach Jim Anderson - will interview for the team's head-coaching job.

Coughlin, St.Louis Rams defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis are expected to be other top candidates.

The Steelers gave the Bengals permission Monday to talk to Mularkey.

The Bengals didn't pick up the optional third season on LeBeau's two-year contract. The Bengals had an NFL worst 2-14 record this season, and LeBeau's 12-33 career mark lands him at the bottom of the franchise coaching list with a .267 win percentage.

"We want what everyone wants, a winning coach," Bengals president Mike Brown said. "We're not restricting ourselves to looking for just offensive people or just defensive people. We will probably interview a number of people, both people who are here now and people who are from the outside.

"The thing that matters isn't the initial splash. The thing that matters is whether we win."

Former Minnesota Vikings coach Dennis Green, an ESPN commentator, said Monday that he isn't interested in the Bengals job. Green also endorsed Anderson for the Bengals job. Green and Anderson were high school teammates in Harrisburg, Pa., and remain friends.

Green and Bill Parcells are the top two candidates for the Dallas job.

Anderson would be the first minority interviewed for one of top three Bengals coaching jobs in their 35-year history. The NFL has instituted a program to promote the interviewing and hiring of minority coaches.

"We have always complied with league rules, league policy," Brown said of the program. "This is the league policy, and we will comply with it."

The Rams' Smith - like Anderson, Green and Lewis - is African-American. Smith is a former assistant coach to John Cooper - now a Bengals personnel consultant - when Cooper coached at Tulsa and Ohio State.

A criticism of LeBeau was his lack of discipline.

Discipline is a Coughlin strong point and something Brown said he would like to see more of with the Bengals.

"I'm not so interested in pleasing the players as having the players please me and the fans," Brown said. "And the guy we get, I hope, subscribes to that philosophy."

Brown also likes the idea of an offense-oriented head coach who can call plays.

While Brown might not be done remaking his coaching staff, he said he wouldn't make any changes in the front office or scouting department.

Only four Bengals assistants - Duffner, Jim Anderson, quarterbacks coach Ken Anderson and safeties coach Darren Perry - are under contract past this season.

The Bengals have a 15-day exclusivity period with assistants whose contracts have expired, Brown said. Coaches under contract are expected to continue working.

The new head coach will have the power to hire his staff - within financial reason.

"We have never determined who the coaches would be here," Brown said. "The veto we have here is the necessary veto power every team has. You have to have that budgetary veto power, or somebody will go totally off the wall. But it has never been exercised by me since I have been in this position."

Some assistant coaches and players have criticized the organization's strength and conditioning program in recent weeks, and Brown said that strength and conditioning coach Kim Wood's job will undergo the same examination as those of position coaches.

"I think that it does also," Brown said.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com