Will 2025 Be Zac Taylor’s Biggest Hit Or Swan Song?
Credit: Phil Didion via Imagn Images
“Where does a man turn when he has nowhere else to go?”
If you enter the preceding phrase into Google, you will come up with scores of interesting — and often depressing — results. Among the popular results are those addressing how to break up with someone, though others explain where one may find shelter. If you’re typing that into Google, you’re in some dire circumstances.
Zac Taylor might be punching in that sentence right now. The 2025 NFL season is going to be a massive one in determining his future as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. With the team missing the playoffs for the second straight year, the love Who Dey Nation has shown the man who ended the team’s postseason win drought (1990-2021) has dwindled quickly. Instead, the Bengals’ fan base has gone from just being happy to win a playoff game to a Super Bowl or Bust mentality.
Much of the credit given for the Bengals’ success in recent years has been attributed to one man: Ohio native Joe Burrow, who has tantalized fans and opponents with his talent since his arrival. While Burrow has soaked up acclaim with his talent, late-game heroics, and by gritting through a score of injuries, Taylor has been Bengals fans’ source of ire in recent years. Despite calling the plays for the team’s historic 2024 offense, Taylor knows that many of the team’s faults — its porous defense, its handling of contracts, Jermaine Burton, etc. — also fall on his shoulders, fair or not.
Somehow, it came as a shock when the team announced on Black Monday that they had parted ways with not one, but four coaches from its 2024 staff. While defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo — once considered by many a top head coaching candidate in his own right — was expected to be let go, three of his coworkers were not. However, not only were offensive line coach Frank Pollack, defensive line coach Marion Hobby and linebackers coach James Bettcher dismissed, but Taylor also announced it was his decision, and his alone, to move on. In doing so, Taylor channeled his inner 2008 Barack Obama, announcing change had come to the Bengals.
In doing so, he also essentially decided to do something no one before him has: Acknowledge his deficiencies as the leader and gamble on himself in a way that will make or break his tenure as Bengals head coach.
We don’t yet know who is replacing these coaches, but in shaking things up, Taylor has offered Who Dey Nation a mea culpa of sorts, a massive “my bad” in recognition of just how far removed the Bengals looked from their 2022 Super Bowl season.
The only thing is, in removing the coaches in question, Taylor — as well as Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin — still must address the challenge of drafting and developing on-field talent. The Bengals’ record of drafting defensive players has been, by all accounts, fairly dismal for decades dating back to Dan “Big Daddy” Wilkinson; their best first-round picks (Justin Smith, Johnathan Joseph) made Pro Bowls with other teams once having left the Queen City. The Bengals haven’t had a linebacker make the Pro Bowl since 2013 (Vontaze Burfict), so while Bettcher did himself no favors, that position has been underperforming for a decade-plus. With no great pass-rushers outside of Trey Hendrickson, the Bengals’ defense finished the 2024 season tied with the Indianapolis Colts for 25th in sacks (36).
Likewise, the verdict remains out for 2024 first-rounder Amarius Mims. But considering their track record of developing linemen not named Willie Anderson and Andrew Whitworth, Mims becoming an impact tackle needs to be seen to be believed. Jackson Carman, a former second-round pick under the Taylor regime, was let go before the 2024 season. Given how Alex Cappa won the negative pass protection Triple Crown, (finishing last among all guards with 51 pressures, 36 hurries, and eight sacks allowed), Carman might soon have company in the ex-Bengals unemployment line. Then again, the Bengals allowed the 12-most sacks in the league (48) in 2024, so Cappa wasn’t alone in having a down season, despite Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase’s prolific performances.
Now, the 2025 season will reveal if this was Pollack’s fault throughout his 2021-24 tenure, or if Taylor and Tobin just can’t find and coach the right men for the job.
In fairness, Taylor deserves more credit than he gets for rescuing a once-moribund franchise from the NFL doldrums. But in a league where everyone believes John Cena’s theme song should be their team’s mentality, patience is a virtue men like Taylor — now entering his seventh season as Bengals head coach — are no longer afforded. It doesn’t help Taylor that his predecessor, Marvin Lewis, lingered on for far too long.
The stakes for Taylor are clear: He will either right the Bengals’ ship, return to the playoffs, and make a run that convinces Cincinnati to win it all. If not, he should expect fans of the men in Orange and Black to see red, especially if he returns in 2026. If there’s one thing the Bengals’ fanbase has made clear, it’s that they are tired of that same ol’ song.
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