The 2-14 mark isn’t what anybody wanted or expected but Cincinnati Bengals stars haven’t hesitated to rush out in support of head coach Zac Taylor.
A.J. Green led the charge in explaining why the players still have plenty of faith in the first-year head coach:
“Zac is a great coach. I think he’s going to get this rolling as soon as we get everything going,” Green said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “We had a lot injuries. We had to rotate offensive linemen, a lot of stuff like that. It’s kind of tough when you’ve got a coach getting the feel, but I think Zac is a guy that is really going to change us because he’s an unbelievable coach. A player’s coach. He takes care of his guys.”
Green was hardly the only one to pound the table for more than a single year of Taylor in charge.
Here’s Dre Kirkpatrick: “What are you doing if you get rid of him after one year? You have to give him an opportunity. You’ve seen we can be good.”
Giovani Bernard: “Players don’t want him going anywhere.”
And C.J. Uzomah: “I see that in this locker room. People are connected like no other. It kind of gives me hope.”
On one hand, many of these players rallied for more years of Marvin Lewis, too. It’s a high-character group of guys, to say the least. On the other, we have to take the players at their word when they speak on the improvements of the culture.
And besides, Taylor showed significant growth as a play-caller as the season progressed, his staff made noteworthy adjustments coming out of the bye and nobody can argue against the fact he started with a bad roster with bad luck to boot.
Winning two games isn’t good enough, but it isn’t hard to see why Bengals players have rallied around Taylor.
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