There seems to be an overwhelming thought among Cincinnati Bengals fans that head coach Zac Taylor is largely immune to whatever happens on the field this season.
Some evidence certainly points in that direction. The team just does things differently. Even Dave Shula got five years. It goes on and on.
But is Taylor exempt from a hot seat?
If the Bengals were to fire Taylor and his staff this offseason and start over again it would hardly be the first time a staff has gone one-and-done.
Just last year, the Arizona Cardinals fired a miserable staff that couldn’t get much out of a rookie quarterback, let alone an MVP-caliber talent like David Johnson. The front office then gambled on Kliff Kingsbury and took Kyler Murray first overall. The record isn’t great (3-7-1), but there is big hope for the future because the coach-quarterback tandem is dynamite.
Bengals brass has to at least consider making a similar change. Taylor is 0-11. It’s the worst start in team history. He was initially brought on not to rebuild, but to attempt contention. Or at least, that’s what the Bengals sold fans in an effort to keep folks coming to the stadium.
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And it isn’t just the record. There isn’t an overwhelming quantifiable thing Taylor and his staff have done to show improvement. The defense can’t stop anyone. Taylor’s offense is a mess that just went two of 12 on third downs. He benched Andy Dalton and in his third game, rookie Ryan Finely just coughed up two fumbles while completing 12 of his 26 passes.
Some of Taylor’s hires that looked questionable haven’t stood up. The inexperiened tag chased offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and he shares the offensive blame with Taylor. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo’s unit is still good for big allowances, poor gap management and missed tackles. Offensive line coach Jim Turner has the Cordy Glenn controversy overshadowing bad play by the unit all year.
None of this is to say adversity hasn’t made the job harder. Everyone knows about the injuries. Everybody knew there would be some growing pains. But this staff just lost to a Steelers team without its top two or three players and eventually went to a third-string passer. Can the front office really just shrug off an 0-16 season? 1-15?
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Part of what makes this even a conversation is how the Bengals have changed the status quo over the last few years. The front office has unexpectedly fired a coordinator midseason. It moved on from Marvin Lewis. It has cut players in the middle of contracts to send messages. Things haven’t 100 percent changed — sitting on their hands at the trade deadline so they could keep losing like this was a whiff. But there has been enough unorthodox behavior out of the franchise later (of the good kind!) that one has to think perhaps even Taylor and his staff aren’t safe.
Maybe Taylor and Co. make this a moot point over the next few weeks with wins. But Sunday’s tumble into the franchise-worst start was one of the most winnable games of the season and minus a few miracle plays from guys who deserve better like Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd, the team never really looked close to pulling it off.
Maybe the Bengals do things differently than the rest of the NFL. But one has to think the seat is getting warm.
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