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Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was nowhere near a football field on Monday, but his mind was still on the team's prospects.

Burrow attended the Met Gala in New York City and did an interview with Vanity Fair — Burrow wore a suit from Bode, which means we won't get a "The Bengal Wears Prada" headline — while getting ready for the festivities. Burrow was asked about his reaction to the recent trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence as well as earlier moves to add safety Bryan Cook, edge rusher Boye Mafe, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and safety Kyle Dugger in free agency. chickenroad-game.rodeo

“I’m really excited about the moves we made this offseason,” Burrow said. “We need to get better, so it was exciting to see the initiative from everybody in the organization to realize that we’re in this exciting stage. We’re in our primes playing great football. Finding guys like Dexter and Bryan Cook and [Jacob] Bayer, to, you know, really solidify that defense so the young guys can also kind of rise up. We’re really going to try to achieve what we want to achieve.”

Bayer is a backup offensive lineman who signed to the practice squad last season, so it seems likely that Burrow was actually referring to another one of the defensive acquisitions and something got missed in translation.

Whatever the reference, it's a very different tone from Burrow than the deflated one he shared in some late-season press conferences last year. If that tone is still positive months from now, it will be a sign that the Bengals' offseason maneuvering worked out as hoped.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was nowhere near a football field on Monday, but his mind was still on the team's prospects.

Burrow attended the Met Gala in New York City and did an interview with Vanity Fair — Burrow wore a suit from Bode, which means we won't get a "The Bengal Wears Prada" headline — while getting ready for the festivities. Burrow was asked about his reaction to the recent trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence as well as earlier moves to add safety Bryan Cook, edge rusher Boye Mafe, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and safety Kyle Dugger in free agency.

“I’m really excited about the moves we made this offseason,” Burrow said. “We need to get better, so it was exciting to see the initiative from everybody in the organization to realize that we’re in this exciting stage. We’re in our primes playing great football. Finding guys like Dexter and Bryan Cook and [Jacob] Bayer, to, you know, really solidify that defense so the young guys can also kind of rise up. We’re really going to try to achieve what we want to achieve.”

Bayer is a backup offensive lineman who signed to the practice squad last season, so it seems likely that Burrow was actually referring to another one of the defensive acquisitions and something got missed in translation.

Whatever the reference, it's a very different tone from Burrow than the deflated one he shared in some late-season press conferences last year. If that tone is still positive months from now, it will be a sign that the Bengals' offseason maneuvering worked out as hoped.

While the Orlando Magic are just starting their search for a new head coach after firing Jamahl Mosley, Portland and New Orleans are further along in their searches — but those two teams are in very different places.

The Pelicans have narrowed down their list to four candidates, reports Sam Amick at The Athletic.

New Orleans has been deliberating over finalists Darvin Ham (a Bucks associate head coach under Rivers), Steve Hetzel (Brooklyn assistant), Sean Sweeney (San Antonio associate head coach) and Rajon Rondo (a coaching associate with the Bucks). Mosley has long been believed to be a possible candidate if he became available, but it's unclear as of yet if he'll be added to the list.

Rondo is an interesting name. The four-time All-Star point guard has been out of the league for four seasons and is on the radar of a number of general managers, but is he ready for that leap? It has long been expected in league circles that the Magic's Mosley would move to the front of the line in New Orleans if Orlando moved on from him, which it did. Ham was a former head coach with the Lakers, and his name has come up as a possibility in Orlando’s coaching search.

While New Orleans is narrowing down the field, Portland continues to cast a very wide net, reports Amick.

As league sources said on Monday, the Trail Blazers have cast a net so wide that the list of candidates could be almost 20 coaches long and, in the end, will consist of names procured by both Dundon and general manager Joe Cronin. What's more, league sources say, there is no clear messaging as of yet about a possible timeline on the hiring.

While Tiago Splitter did a good job taking over a team a couple of days into the season (after the arrest of Chauncy Billups on alleged gambling charges) and leading the Trail Blazers to a surprise playoff berth, league sources told NBC Sports he does not appear to be a favorite of new owner Tom Dundon, so the door is wide open. Then there is the lingering money question: Rumors circulated that Dundon was trying to get a coach to take the job for $1.5 million or less — mid-major college coach money — the team has pushed back hard on that. Still, the chatter around the league is that Portland is trying to hire on the cheap, whatever that final number is. As Amick notes, it is thought that the least any coach in the league is making is at least $2 million, in Sacramento's Doug Christie (who is keeping his job).

It appears it could be a while before Portland has a coach.