Zac Taylor has impressed early in his career
By: Chinmay Kulkarni
In the world of NFL coaches, the name Zac Taylor is not a household name. As the Cincinnati Bengals head coach, being a part of a struggling, small-market team means not getting much national media attention – both a blessing and a curse to his career and team. Now, Taylor has willed this team into the Super Bowl, with exceptional play-calling and draft intuition that’s left his team on the cusp of a major victory for the city of Cincinnati.
Despite his almost no-name stature, Taylor played quarterback at Nebraska and earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2006. The Norman, Oklahoma native committed to the NFL draft, going undrafted while signing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad and Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL. It’s safe to say that his playing career never took off, but eventually found a path via coaching.
The meteoric rise to success starts with the assistant quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins in 2012. In 2015, he was promoted to interim offensive coordinator under interim head coach Dan Campbell. The Miami Dolphins were a complete clown show in 2015, and it was safe to say that they lost quite a few games that season. Fortunately, Taylor was eventually hired again as the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bearcats. Due to the grooming of Ryan Tannehill in the NFL, Taylor was finally making a name for himself and rose up the coaching ranks. In 2017, he was hired as the assistant wide receivers coach for the LA Rams, becoming a quarterbacks coach in during his tenure as well. Taylor was officially a part of the McVay mafia.
Taylor was eventually hired as the head coach of the Bengals in 2019. The success for the team was not immediate, with Andy Dalton at the helm with a hodgepodge of players from different coaches an drafts being forced to play together. The Andy Dalton saga for the Bengals was destined to end, with the drafting of Joe Burrow as the number one overall pick in 2020. The team greatly improved with the quarterback and wide receiver talent at skill positions, and with an upwards direction, performance was trending north until a season-ending knee injury to Joe Burrow. Fortunately, the team came back stronger in 2021 by drafting Ja’Marr Chase and Evan McPherson, two players that would be known for their dependability. Chase showed that he was arguably the most talented rookie in the NFL in his first tear as a pro.
Zac Taylor has coached for 10 years. In this time, he’s gone from assistant coaching positions to Superbowl head coach. The fact remains that this young, inexperienced team has much to prove. The LA Rams have better players at nearly every single position on the football field. However, the Bengals cannot be slept on and are playing with house money. The team has several years to grow and develop together without being under the gun of time. If Zac Taylor can keep his core together, healthy, and performing at a high level, he and his team should be a playoff contender year after year.
