Former Super Bowl GM Gives Brutal Assessment Of Zac Taylor
Credit: Sam Greene via Imagn Images
Bengals fans rightfully have a lot to be worried about in this upcoming offseason. A lot of the core of star players may have seen their final days in Cincinnati. While Zac Taylor preaches a culture of Kumbaya, it has seemed to come at the expense of toughness at times, which is tough for a team that plays six games a year against AFC North opponents.
Michael Lombardi, who won two Super Bowls as GM of the Patriots, had a brutal assessment of the culture that Zac Taylor has instilled.
“The offensive line has been a mess,” Lombardi said. “Their defense hasn’t been very good because of the way they practice and because of the way they don’t really demand physicality. The reality of it is, teams that can’t run the ball don’t play good run defense. That’s just a fact. The Rams, one of the areas they have to improve on is their running game. They were 31st in the NFL in yards per attempt. And guess what? Their defense was 26 and allowing yards per attempt. Those two things have to go together, and Cincy never puts those two together. I think it’s one of the hardest defensive coordinator jobs in football because of the way they approach offensive football in Cincinnati. They never run it. They really don’t manage the game correctly, they just want to score, score, score. All of a sudden, they’re in a scoring duel and they end up losing so Duke’s got a challenge but he’s going to have to draft really well.”
The Bengals, as long as time has been a thing, have relied on high flying offense to win football games. Their QB-WR combos have lit defenses on fire, but it has come at the expense of other areas of the field. Especially of late, the Bengals have relied on Joe Burrow to play hero-ball and play practically perfectly to keep teams in games.
The end of his remarks are the most alarming. They have been able to score a lot of late because Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have been able to catch passes from Joe Burrow, but with the possibility of Tee leaving, that ability to “score, score, score” will very likely dwindle in such a case.
In terms of drafting really well, it has, shall we say, not been Duke’s strong suit.
Each team's percentage of draft picks that became PRO BOWLERS since 2014:
(📸 Ig/pickinem) pic.twitter.com/lhC0Tb91Ar
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 17, 2024
For those of you counting, only four Bengals draft picks in the last ten years have become Pro Bowlers: Joe Mixon, Jessie Bates, Joe Burrow, and Ja’Marr Chase. The Bengals were able to draft two of those four players (Burrow and Chase) because they fell into their laps in back to back drafts. While heavy investments have been made on defense in recent drafts, failures in scouting, development, and the lack of toughness that Lombardi mentioned on defense have led to many of those investments falling flat. An Al Golden regime may bring improved development of young players and a change from the “Bend, don’t break” philosophy from the Lou Anarumo era. However, until the toughness that the Bengals lack improves, the offense may have to continue to abide by the “Score, score, score” mindset just so they can survive games.
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