Yes Zac Taylor Still Has a Job. But How?

The NFL coaching cycle can be brutal and unforgiving and this one has been no exception. Take Sean McDermott for example. He was let go by the Buffalo Bills after nine seasons with a 98–50 regular-season record and six playoff appearances. John Harbaugh also lost his job the Ravens after 18 seasons and a 180–113 record with a Super Bowl victory. And although he wasn’t fired, Mike Tomlin stepped down from the Pittsburgh Steelers after 19 seasons with a 193–114–2 record, including 13 playoff berths and a title. That makes eight head coaches who have been given the ax in 2025 all with a variety of levels of success.

But of all the newly unemployed coaches, Zac Taylor remains comfortably ensconced with the Bengals despite a career wining percentage under 50%, and well below coaches like McDermott and Harbaugh. Though Taylor does have five playoff wins, those seem so far in the past that they hardly are a reason that justifies keeping him. After all, guys like Carroll and Harbaugh have 22 combined postseason wins and even McDermott had five of his own before being let go.

And it’s been crystal clear why teams are making these tough decisions, even when the coaches they are dismissing have had substantial success over the course of decades. It’s because they want to win and are serous about winning now:

"We love John like a brother, and it was really the most difficult decision that we made. But we made it. It's the big picture. We want the Ravens to succeed. I felt it was the right time to make the change. If not now, when?" - Baltimore Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti

These are the types of honest quotes that most Bengals fans would revel in hearing. This is because it sends a clear message what is important in this league: winning football games while you have the best players in place to do that. In Buffalo it’s Josh Allen. For the Ravens it’s Lamar Jackson. The pieces are there but the system around those pieces must just as elite, and if it’s not, then changes must be made.

But not in Cincinnati where Zac Taylor has managed to avoid the unemployment line despite declining numbers. And one huge reason why (apart from the organization’s refusal to part ways with coaches under contract) is that the Bengals’ biggest stars, including Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrow have publicly thrown ther support behind Taylor. Despite the struggles, Taylor still has the confidence of the players and the locker room, which is something you don’t often see in teams who have underperformed as much as Cincinnati has in recent years.

That confidence is something that didn’t appear to be the case in Baltimore as you could just see the tension between star quarterback and head coach:

And no matter how much Josh Allen may have liked Sean McDermott, it didn’t stop ownership from making the tough choice to move on. And while it is never wise to anger your best players, this franchise has done plenty to honor them in the form of lucrative contracts and a live-wire offense.

But the quality of that unit doesn’t mean much if the scheme around it is faulty. It’s like having a luxury sports car with a broken engine, it may look pretty but if it can’t get out of the driveway it defeats the purpose. Hiring the right man for the job can change that dynamic in the course of a single offseason (see Mike Vrabel).

Alas there is no hope of that happening now for the Bengals. The chaos of the coaching changes we’ve seen highlights the difference between how Cincinnati and other franchises view success and the things they will do to achieve it. Even if the numbers and the results on the field demonstrate it’s time to move on, for at least one more season (or two depending on if you believe the insiders) the Bengals have simply put all of it aside in the pursuit of trying to get better results using the same broken methods.

That leaves Zac Taylor and Andy Reid as the only two AFC coaches still employed by their teams since 2022:

In the time since 2022, Reid has gone 46-22 with two Super Bowl wins. He’s exactly the quality of head coach you’d expect to have that sort of longevity. And the fact that he and Taylor are the last two standing is simply astonishing.