Bengals head coach Zac Taylor receives interesting judgement in latest rankings
A team's success, but mostly failure, is usually directly linked to the head coach. Of any individual associated with the process, he's the one that can be responsibly labeled with a win-loss record. Zac Taylor's overall record as the head of the Cincinnati Bengals is still below .500, but the trend is obviously upward with […]
A team's success, but mostly failure, is usually directly linked to the head coach. Of any individual associated with the process, he's the one that can be responsibly labeled with a win-loss record.
Zac Taylor's overall record as the head of the Cincinnati Bengals is still below .500, but the trend is obviously upward with his career in the Queen City.
Now entering year five on the job, Taylor finds himself as the 10th-longest tenured head coach in the NFL. Ample playoff success over the last two years will have him patrolling the Bengals' sidelines for many more years to come, but where does he stack up compared to the 31 others in his profession?
NBC Sports' Patrick Daugherty's latest head coach rankings has Taylor just outside the top 10, taking the 12th spot for the second year in a row.
As the offensive play-caller for the second-most winningest team in the NFL since 2021, Taylor rightfully deserves to be at least near the upper echelon of current head coaches. He's also earned recognition for bringing a new approach to building the team through free agency.
Daugherty, however, brings up the point of Taylor's success being the product of Joe Burrow and a defense coordinated by Lou Anarumo.
"Maybe Taylor is just in the right place at the right time. If so, he's had the good judgment to not bite the hands that feed him, and offer enough of his own contributions that he won't be the reason this team doesn't reach what is beginning to seem like its Lombardi destiny." – Patrick Daugherty on Zac Taylor
It's a bit harsh considering Taylor is mainly responsible for the team that trots onto the field every Sunday. He's the one who hired Anarumo after an exhaustive search to fill the vacancy four years ago, and he also successfully evolved his offensive scheme to best fit Burrow and the weapons around him.
That said, the first two years of Taylor's run in Cincinnati weren't pretty. He won just two games with the remains of Marvin Lewis' roster in 2019, and many wondered if his seat was getting warm near the end of 2020 after Burrow's torn ACL.
Continued success following a rough start will elevate Taylor further in the consensus rankings, especially if he outlasts coaches hired after him. Public opinion will have no choice but to associate him with the top of the profession.
