Hot seat or not, Bengals' Zac Taylor comes up short in coach rankings
Where should Bengals coach Zac Taylor rank among all head coaches in the NFL?
The Cincinnati Bengals ducked around serious hot-seat questions for Zac Taylor this offseason by stressing that continuity is the most important thing they could have at this stage of the Joe Burrow era. Perhaps that’s true, especially in the AFC North. The Bengals are the only team in the division not starting over at head coach, which could put them at an advantage.
Even so, that doesn't really change where Taylor stands amongst head coaches across the NFL. NFL. com's Gregg Rosenthal recently ranked Taylor as the 29th overall head coach in the NFL during an appearance on the NFL Daily podcast.
At this point, it’s hard to complain about any sort of rankings for Taylor. He’s one of the longest-tenured coaches in the NFL, so the proof is right there. We can say what we want about the good he’s done in turning around the program and the injuries he’s had to deal with, but at the end of the day, he’s missed the playoffs in three straight years and has a bad record without Burrow.
Granted, Taylor has had to deal with Bengals ownership that was slow to modernize and get aggressive, too. It’s a complicated thing going on in Cincinnati, no doubt. All seem to agree on one thing, though: Next season is make-or-break for the era.