When I first looked at the Cincinnati Bengals as a candidate for a coaching change, my eyes went straight to defensive coordinator Al Golden.

Cincinnati’s defense was bad in his first season running the unit in 2025. It started this fall on a much better note, but things have returned to the mean a bit, and the defense hasn’t been very good over the last few weeks.

That conversation came up on the latest episode of 13 Personnel with co-hosts Austin Stanley and Easton Freeze, where we ran through the next potential NFL firings. It turns out the more pressing name in Cincinnati is Bengals head coach Zac Taylor.

I touched base with John Sheeran, who covers the Bengals for A to Z Sports, to get a pulse on Golden. According to Sheeran, there isn’t a ton of heat on the defensive coordinator.

The focus this season is squarely on Taylor.

Not much leash left for Zac Taylor

Here’s the thing about Taylor’s tenure in Cincinnati.

He took the Bengals to a Super Bowl a few years ago, and that run bought him a lot of goodwill. Since then, the organization has stagnated and regressed. It feels like the staff just hasn’t found the right formula at the right time.

From what Sheeran told me, there isn’t much leash left for Taylor at this point. He described the rest of the season as a big stretch for the head coach.

To be clear, Sheeran isn’t predicting a firing. If Cincinnati misses the playoffs and it’s the same old story, though, Taylor could find himself on the hot seat.

That brings the conversation back to Golden. It would be rare for a new head coach to retain the existing defensive coordinator, so if Taylor goes, Golden would likely be on the outs as well. Technically, that puts Golden on the hot seat too when you really think about it.

Overall, though, this is a Taylor conversation first and foremost.

Where the Bengals stand right now

The standings make things a little more complicated. The Bengals are 3-2, but they sit last in the AFC North because every other team in the division is 4-2. Cincinnati is coming off a bye, and next up is a road trip to Baltimore.

Freeze compared the situation to Groundhog Day with Taylor. He believes the program has reached a point where a bad season, one that Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is largely a part of, would be enough to end Taylor’s run.

Freeze also made a fair point about the record.

The only reason Cincinnati isn’t 4-2 like the rest of the division is the bye. The Bengals also have a schedule ahead that isn’t impossible. In his view, Taylor is the easiest coach of anyone we discussed to win his way out of firing consideration. He isn’t interested in revisiting the Taylor conversation until the Bengals start to flounder down the stretch.

That’s a reasonable stance. A 3-2 start with a healthy quarterback isn’t a crisis. Still, the pressure is very real when an organization has watched the same pattern play out after a Super Bowl appearance. The margin for another middling finish has shrunk considerably.

The trip to Baltimore should tell us a lot about which direction this season is headed. A win would pull Cincinnati right back into the thick of the AFC North race and quiet some of the noise.

A loss, especially an ugly one, would only add fuel to a conversation that is already brewing around Taylor and his staff. We will see how things play out over the next several weeks.