Bengals’ Zac Taylor slips in latest NFL coaching staff rankings

The NFL is famous for being a ‘what have you done for me lately’ league. One season of success is great, but if it’s not replicated year after year, even the most accomplished of players or coaches can find themselves on the hot seat. Look at Doug Pederson, who won Super Bowl LII to secure the Philadelphia Eagles their first Lombardi trophy but parted ways just three years later.

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor appears to be walking down a similar road, which could end with similar results, if he doesn’t get back to his winning ways. Ben Solak, an NFL analyst for ESPN, recently ranked each team’s coaching staff heading into the 2025 season, and Taylor and his coordinators landed at No. 17, a three-slot drop from their 2024 rank.

Justifying this ranking, Solak writes, “Here they are at 17th, and it's because Taylor doesn't have the same impact on the offense that Matt LaFleur or Shanahan or McVay (or McDaniel or O'Connell, and so on) have. That, and I just don't know how much Al Golden will fare as an NFL defensive coordinator.”

Solak did throw Bengals fans a bone, admitting that this was a tough ranking for him. “I'll put it this way: The teams between No. 14 and No. 17 make up the toughest stretch of this exercise. You could jumble them up in any order and I'd believe it was the way I ranked them.”

So all is not lost for the Bengals and Zac Taylor based on being ranked in the bottom half of the league. As Solak admits, his ranking is more of a ‘known-to-unknown’ rather than ‘good-to-bad’. However, the Bengals have now missed the playoffs for a second-straight season, regressing hard from back-to-back AFC Championship appearances in 2021 and 2022. With a dominant quarterback like Joe Burrow on the roster, repeated failures cannot be long tolerated.

It’s too early to say that 2025 is a make-or-break year for Taylor, but if the Bengals once again miss the playoffs, his job could be in severe jeopardy.