Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is a tough one to rank amongst his peers.
On one hand, his entire remaking of the program has morphed the Bengals into a Super Bowl contender. On the other, his overall record is still 28-36-1 and he’s going to have a hard time shaking the stigma that it’s Joe Burrow and the offensive weapons doing the heavy lifting.
That’s likely part of why Tim Weaver of Seahawks Wire slots Taylor at No. 21 in the “middle of the pack” category:
“This next group of coaches have at least a few years of experience and have shown at least some promise. However, there’s no guarantee that they’ll stick around in their positions in the long run (4-5 years).”
That last part doesn’t apply to Taylor at all — the success he’s found guarantees he’ll be in Cincinnati for a very, very long time.
Truthfully, there are many reasons things have worked out so well for Taylor with the Bengals. One of the big, underrated ones is contenders simply don’t ever enjoy this much consistency on the coaching staff at key spots like coordinators.
But one could argue that Taylor’s style of leadership and program-shifting is invaluable and others in the same spot wouldn’t have produced the same results, so it’s hard to take issue if Bengals fans want to see him higher.
