{"id":235340,"date":"2025-06-04T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=235340"},"modified":"2025-06-03T23:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T03:32:43","slug":"how-warm-is-zac-taylor-seat-in-cincinnati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/06\/04\/how-warm-is-zac-taylor-seat-in-cincinnati\/","title":{"rendered":"How Warm is Zac Taylor’s Seat in Cincinnati?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every season, a handful of coaches are forced to update their resum\u00e9s as the NFL is a win-now league. For some, it’s just time for change. For others, the coach wasn’t the right fit or just was not up to expectations. It’s the same in every league. In the NBA, the New York Knicks just canned their coach after getting to the Eastern Conference finals. Time ran out on the Marvin Lewis<\/a> era in Cincinnati, and it’s possible that the same can be said for his successor.<\/p>\n

Zac Taylor took over in 2019 and led a truly awful roster to the first-overall pick, landing quite possibly the greatest quarterback in franchise history. In that time, the Bengals have had an immense amount of success, but at the same time, it has fallen flat.<\/a><\/p>\n

To say “Super Bowl or Bust” in Cincinnati is about as realistic as saying “World Series or Bust” in the preseason for the MLB team across the street. While the Bengals have the expectation to get back to the Super Bowl, it’s not quite on the level of the Kansas City Chiefs, for better or worse. However, if the Taylor-led squad misses out on the playoffs for the third straight season, will it be time for a change?<\/p>\n

How Warm is Zac Taylor’s Seat in Cincinnati?<\/h2>\n

Heading into the 2025 season, expectations remain high for the Bengals despite the atrocity that was the defensive side of the line. This offseason, the Bengals added two outside free agents who raise the floor and then three draft picks. Two of those picks were the first two picks of their class, highlighting that the franchise at least understands that the defense needs fixing<\/a>. Of course, it continues to balk at Trey Hendrickson<\/a>, but we digress.<\/p>\n

After missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, and for the first time with a wholly healthy Burrow, there are some who are getting antsy. As a result, Taylor’s name has popped up in discussions about who has the hottest seat in the NFL.<\/p>\n

PFF<\/a>, in no particular order, named Taylor among its 10 coaches on the hot seat:<\/p>\n

“The Bengals went 9-8 in 2024, a record many teams would have loved to have reached. But considering the talent on the roster and a waning championship window, it feels like a prove-it year for Taylor.<\/p>\n

Although Cincinnati\u2019s offense finished seventh in EPA per play, its defense languished to 28th in success rate despite\u00a0Trey Hendrickson\u2018s presence (90.4 PFF pass-rushing grade).\u00a0Joe Burrow<\/a>,\u00a0Ja\u2019Marr Chase\u00a0and\u00a0Tee Higgins<\/a>\u00a0effectively played like Madden characters each week, and it still wasn\u2019t enough to crack the playoffs \u2014 largely due to a 1-4 start.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati extended both Chase (84.9 PFF receiving grade) and Higgins (88.3 PFF receiving grade), keeping the groundwork in place for another high-flying offense. But it\u2019s fair to wonder how much better the defense is on paper, even after adding top picks\u00a0Shemar Stewart\u00a0(79.5 PFF overall grade) and\u00a0Demetrius Knight Jr.\u00a0(82.8 PFF overall grade).<\/p>\n

The Bengals\u2019 core isn\u2019t getting any younger or cheaper, and key pieces, such as Hendrickson, may not have much time left in Cincinnati. After two straight 9-8 finishes, it feels like Taylor will need to at least make the playoffs this year to retain his job.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor congratulates wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase (1) on the sideline after a touchdown reception in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 16 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. The Bengals won 24-16.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

CBS Sports<\/a>, meanwhile, has him with the second-hottest seat, behind Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin:<\/p>\n

“The Bengals have been to a\u00a0Super Bowl<\/a>\u00a0and two conference championship games under Taylor, but they also have missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. This is a team that has Joe Burrow at quarterback, along with\u00a0Ja’Marr Chase<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tee Higgins<\/a>\u00a0at wide receiver.<\/p>\n

Taylor deserves credit for turning the Bengals around in each of the last two seasons, as Cincinnati rebounded from slow starts to finish with a winning record. The Bengals missed the playoffs because of those slow starts, which is on Taylor — especially when it keeps happening every year. Cincinnati is 4-7 in September over the past three seasons under Taylor, which has to change if the Bengals want to make a deep playoff run.<\/p>\n

If Cincinnati misses the playoffs again, there’s a good chance Taylor is looking for a new head coaching job in 2026. Taylor can get off the hot seat with a postseason appearance or a fast start to the season. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Vote of Confidence<\/h3>\n

For better or for worse, that Super Bowl 56 loss likely bought Taylor a decade of goodwill from the Bengals’ ownership. Marvin Lewis lasted 16 seasons and posted a 0-6 record in the playoffs with only seven winning seasons under his belt. He is the franchise’s winningest coach with 131 wins with 122 losses, and three ties. Given, his two greatest teams were derailed by injuries. First, Carson Palmer<\/a>‘s knee in the 2005 Wild Card. Then, Andy Dalton<\/a>‘s thumb down the stretch, forcing the team to start A.J. McCarron<\/a> in the wild card. Oddly enough, both seasons ended at the hands of the Steelers, plus Dalton’s injury was suffered against Pittsburgh in the regular season.<\/p>\n

At this point, it feels like no matter how warm the media outlets like to say Taylor’s seat is, it’s likely still sitting at room temperature. The Bengals have seen Taylor-led teams compete in each of the last four seasons with four winning campaigns. For as much as it has felt like the sky was falling over the last two years, the Bengals finished 9-8.<\/p>\n

Are there things that the Bengals need to fix in order for everyone to make the Bengals’ ownership’s apathy toward winning or losing more palatable? Absolutely. They can’t afford another weak start<\/a> to the season, for one.<\/p>\n

Barring a catastrophic meltdown, Taylor is going to finish the season as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals and will continue to coach. Regardless of the fans’ feelings on the matter – and most feelings are well-founded – it’s up to the ownership. And if there’s one thing the owners of the two major professional sports teams in the city of Cincinnati have made abundantly clear, it’s that they really don’t care about winning.<\/p>\n

Taylor is a good coach and a great person to lead the team. Again, barring anything catastrophic, nothing will change.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Sam Greene\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zac Taylor has led the Bengals for six years with two playoff appearances. After back-to-back wasted seasons, is he on the hot seat?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":235590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,7,54],"tags":[7725,4584],"class_list":["post-235340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bengals","category-editorials","tag-cincinnati-bengals-news","tag-zac-taylor"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235592,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235340\/revisions\/235592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}