{"id":99479,"date":"2020-12-10T14:52:01","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T19:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=99479"},"modified":"2021-03-18T19:21:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T23:21:18","slug":"joe-burrow-wants-zac-taylor-to-stay-with-cincinnati-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/12\/10\/joe-burrow-wants-zac-taylor-to-stay-with-cincinnati-bengals\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Burrow Wants Zac Taylor to Stay With Cincinnati Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/bengals\/\" target=\"_self\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> were getting incredible production from their quarterback and rookie standout <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?s=joe+burrow\" target=\"_self\">Joe Burrow<\/a><\/strong> when he was taken down in Week 11 with a knee injury. With Cincinnati putting all of their hopes and dreams on Burrow, he&#8217;s reportedly got embattled head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?s=zac+taylor\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Zac Taylor<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s back.<\/p>\n<h2>Despite struggles, rookie standout Joe Burrow wants the Bengals to keep Zac Taylor in the building<\/h2>\n<p>Through injury, in-fighting, and inability to close football games, Zac Taylor still has a key endorsement.\u00a0 Fortunately for him, it&#8217;s the voice that matters most in the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Burrow might&#8217;ve lost the last six games of his rookie season to a torn ACL and MCL against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/washington-football-team\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Football Team<\/a>, but he hasn&#8217;t lost faith in his head coach.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;He loves it there and thinks he can win a Super Bowl with them,&#8221; a source close to Burrow offered to Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/insider\/story\/_\/id\/30486159\/nfl-coach-firings-hirings-openings-2020-latest-rumors-hearing-eagles-bears-chargers-jets-jobs#cin\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">of <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/insider\/story\/_\/id\/30486159\/nfl-coach-firings-hirings-openings-2020-latest-rumors-hearing-eagles-bears-chargers-jets-jobs#cin\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This reporting doesn&#8217;t come as much of a surprise for Bengals fans. All season long, Burrow has heaped praise on the second-year head coach, despite the team&#8217;s repeated struggles to win games.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I do have input in the gameplan. I do have input on the sideline during the games. I think that&#8217;s something our coaches do really, really well. They always listen to the players,&#8221; Burrow <a href=\"https:\/\/local12.com\/sports\/bengals\/joe-burrow-i-think-we-have-a-great-coaching-staff-that-will-get-us-where-we-want-to-be-cincinnati-pro-football-bengals-cleveland-browns-indianapolis-colts-zac-taylor-aj-green-tee-higgins\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said in an interview<\/a> with local media before Week 7 match-up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether they take it to heart and put it in the gameplan or not, sometimes that happens and somethings that doesn&#8217;t. But that&#8217;s the way it goes. It&#8217;s a give and take. I&#8217;ve been super happy with the game-planning so far. I think we have a great coaching staff that will get us where we want to be.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Bad timing of Joe Burrow&#8217;s injury put the spotlight on Zac Taylor<\/h3>\n<p>Burrow&#8217;s injury came right as the Bengals&#8217; offense was clicking. Though they were on the back end of a drubbing from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/steelers\/\" target=\"_self\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> in Week 10, Burrow was leading an offense averaging 25.5 points in the four games prior to his injury. Burrow was <a href=\"https:\/\/stripehype.com\/2020\/11\/09\/boomer-esiason-compares-cant-miss-joe-burrow-andrew-luck\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on pace to break<\/a> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LuckAn00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Luck<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s rookie season passing record (4,374 yards) before his knee injury. He compiled 2,688 yards, 13 touchdowns, and completed 65.3% of his passes. He also threw just 5 interceptions in his 11-game rookie campaign.<\/p>\n<p>In the weeks since Burrow&#8217;s injury, however, the Bengals&#8217; offense has collapsed. They&#8217;re averaging just 12 points and 175.5 total yards of offense in the past two games. Combined with Taylor&#8217;s struggles from the prior season, where he coached the Bengals to a 2-14 record, there&#8217;s growing frustration from the fanbase and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/bengals\/news\/zac-taylor-bengals-culture-problem\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">certain members of the locker room<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Cincinnati Bengals are 2-9-1 and currently hold the third-worst record in the league. It&#8217;s hard to imagine the team finding rosier offensive results over the final four weeks. Brandon Allen continues to look shaky and Ryan Finley is worse than bad as a backup.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor&#8217;s combined 4-23-1 record in two seasons is terrible. It puts pressure on the Bengals&#8217; organization to have hard conversations in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"hPfifwWmTlBusA_X-0ZnRg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1286246545\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hPfifwWmTlBusA_X-0ZnRg',sig:'RsQVtJwXa2-QMHWkhnuRlC2JSvAoXubpU-wVkNWu7dQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1286246545',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Cincinnati putting all of their hopes and dreams on rookie standout Joe Burrow, he&#8217;s reportedly got embattled coach Zac Taylor&#8217;s back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3734,"featured_media":99513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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],"tags":[7725,5819,40,4584],"class_list":["post-99479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bengals","tag-cincinnati-bengals-news","tag-joe-burrow","tag-nfl","tag-zac-taylor"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99479","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\/3734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}