It would appear going on a historic run to a Super Bowl won’t stop Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor from occupying the same underdog role as the entire team continues to battle with on a daily basis.
Taylor, who took the Bengals through two dramatic years of rebuilding before that Super Bowl run, just isn’t charting well in certain areas.
One such area is the mathematical equations used to rank every head coach by Pro Football Focus’ Conor McQuiston. There, Taylor ranks 22nd out of 26 coaches:
“By the data, it is difficult to call Taylor’s regime in Cincinnati a success despite his postseason resume. The estimate suggests that Taylor is riding off the high of the tremendous amount of talent the Bengals have amassed in recent years.”
The ranking places Taylor in the “Tier 4: Room for Improvement” category.
To his credit, Taylor would probably agree on the improvement bit and he’s been quite open about mistakes in the past as he’s learned on the fly. It’s not hard to find chunks of fans who would agree that he’s being carried along by the likes of Joe Burrow, either.
Still, it’s a little hard to buy a Super Bowl coach being ranked alongside the likes of Dan Campbell and Matt Rhule. Regardless of whether it’s talent carrying Taylor or not, he and the team are winning, which is all that really matters.
