'It's Critical to Have Alignment' - Zac Taylor Confident in Bengals Talent Evaluation Process

CINCINNATI — Zac Taylor met with the media on Tuesday at the 2025 NFL Combine and preached "alignment" in a similar fashion to Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin.

Taylor is not wavering from Cincinnati's evaluation process when it comes to bringing new talent into the team via the NFL Draft and free agency.

"It's critical to have alignment between the front office, Duke and his staff, and the coaching staff," Taylor said. "That's something I take great pride in going into the seventh year I've been here. I wouldn't change anything about our process.

"I think Duke and his staff do an excellent job of as much as humanly possible coming down to the coaches asking what we look for what we need and collaborating with them and what they see in these guys. And I never walk away on draft day feeling like, 'Man coaches didn't get enough to say what they need to say about a player.' All those conversations, sometimes hard conversations are always had."

Bengals coaches have more influence on the draft and talent acquisition than in most franchises and it hasn't been very successful on that front recently but that could all flip this spring.

"With the new coaches I don't see the process changing," Taylor said. "Again, that's driven by Duke and his staff. This is their season, and we're supplementing that. And so again, we'll thoroughly go on the road and do whatever evaluation we need to on the Pro Days. We sit in the office, we watch all the tape, coaches write the reports, and then Duke takes that information and we have the conversations from there. But again, very thorough process. that we firmly believe in."

Cincinnati has nailed just two draft picks since 2021 and had a couple of other pending hits with more production needed.

They have six draft picks slated in the 2025 NFL Draft.

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