Former NFL Executive: Zac Taylor 'Not Qualified to be Head Coach' of the Bengals

The 38-year-old has posted a 6-25-1 record in two seasons.

Author:
James Rapien
Updated:
Jul 1, 2021 5:34 PM EDT
Original:
Jun 29, 2021

CINCINNATI — Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has a lot to prove this season.

He's posted a 6-25-1 record in his first two years and has only won back-to-back games just once over that span.

Former NFL General Manager Michael Lombardi was critical of Taylor and believes the 38-year-old is on the hot seat.

^{"Tremendous hot seat. This year at the draft it basically came down to (Penei) Sewell or (Ja'Marr) Chase from LSU and basically they let the coach pick him. Mike Brown's not going to go another year," Lombardi said on VSIN. "Zac Taylor's performance as a Bengals head coach is worse than David Shula. That was really bad. I mean really, really, really, really, really bad. And this is worse. And Zac's not qualified to be head coach of the team. I'm not sure Zac Taylor's qualified to be the head coach of the University of Cincinnati, let alone the Bengals. All due respect to Zac Taylor, but let's just call a spade a spade here.}
^{"When you have a job that's harder to get than United States Senator, there's only 52 of those and you have a job that's harder to get than that, you have to bring certain credentials to the table. Zac doesn't bring any credentials and the offense has gotten worse. If you bet on Zac Taylor, we're a betting network, why would you ever bet on him? He's demonstrated nothing in terms of managing the team, managing the game. I think that seats hot. I think it's red, red, red hot."}

In all fairness, Lombardi was extremely critical of the Bengals taking Ja'Marr Chase over Penei Sewell with the fifth pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Despite that, his comments about Taylor and Shula are fair—at least from a record standpoint.

Taylor's 6-25-1 record is worse than the Shula's was (8-24) after two seasons.

Brown ultimately kept Shula for four and a half seasons(1992-1996). His final record was 19-52 and that included a 7-9 campaign in 1995.

Taylor needs to get to at least seven wins this season if he's expecting to be back in 2022.

The Bengals have aggressively addressed some of their biggest weaknesses over the past few offseasons, which should lead to more wins.

For my thoughts on Lombardi's comments, watch the video below.

Make sure you bookmark AllBengals for the latest offseason news, NFL rumors and more!

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