Eight of the 32 NFL head coaches have been fired in the four days since the regular season ended. Zac Taylor, as expected, is still with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Taylor was hired all the way back in 2019 and is now entering his eighth year as the HC in Cincinnati. Only a few other coaches can say they’re experiencing greater longevity with their current clubs, and the Baltimore Ravens firing John Harbaugh further elevated Taylor into company that is simply elite.

There are six coaches who’ve been employed as long or longer than Taylor. They are Mike Tomlin (2007), Andy Reid (2013), Sean McDermott (2017), Sean McVay (2017), Kyle Shanahan (2017), and Matt LaFleur (2019).

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Before we go any further, let’s acknowledge what Taylor has accomplished with the Bengals. He’s won two AFC North titles in back-to-back seasons, five of the seven playoff games he’s coached have been victories, and he was a few minutes away from winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl.

Falling short of winning the Lombardi Trophy and his performance outside of the playoffs, however, is what makes Taylor stick out like a sore thumb on this list.

Zac Taylor doesn’t quite compare to the coaches who’ve lasted as long as him

For starters, three of the six coaches have won a ring in their elongated tenures, and four have been coached in multiple Super Bowls. Taylor’s lone appearance does put him above McDermott and LaFleur, but not by a lot.

Legacies for coaches start with titles, and Reid, Tomlin, and McVay will always have their moment(s) of triumph to hang their headsets on. The only way to win the Super Bowl, and make it back again, is to consistently make the playoffs and win in the regular season.

This is where Taylor is really by himself.

All six of Taylor’s newfound peers have regular season winning percentages of 55% or higher, five of them are above 60%, and all of them have made the playoffs more times than not including this year.

What about playoff winning percentage? Taylor has won an admirable 71.4% of his postseason contests, but Reid (69.2%), Shanahan (66.7%), McVay (61.5%), and McDermott (50%) all join him at or above .500. Tomlin (42.1%) being so low is why there’s a chance he may not last very much longer in Pittsburgh, but making the playoffs that many times is needed context for that win percentage. LaFleur (37.5%) sits at the bottom, and he’s been a HC for as long as Taylor.

All the numbers above are from the listed coaches’ current stints. Reid is the only one who was previously a HC, and his past numbers with the Philadelphia Eagles did not count as that is not his current employment.

Taylor sticking around is still not a complete shock

Taylor stands as a sub-.500 coach with five seasons out of seven ending before the postseason begins. One could argue that without those two playoff runs Cincinnati went on in Taylor’s third and fourth year, he would have nothing to stand on as a coach entering Year 8.

The Bengals are notoriously patient. Marvin Lewis lasted 16 years without winning a playoff game. Taylor is almost halfway through that tenure length and could smell the Lombardi at one point.

For Cincy’s standards, Taylor has done enough to stick around for longer. For the standards of the entire NFL, he stands out in a way that’s impossible to deny.

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