Zac Taylor Enters Make-or-Break Season After Bengals' Three-Year Playoff Drought

Zac Taylor is facing arguably the most pressure of any NFL head coach entering the 2026 season.

The Cincinnati Bengals kept Taylor in place amid an offseason in which every head coach in the AFC North was fired and replaced. In the eyes of CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani, Taylor is now under the microscope and on a short leash after several subpar seasons since their Super Bowl appearance in 2021.

In the year after the Super Bowl appearance, the Bengals reached the AFC Championship Game, but they haven't made the playoffs since. For a franchise built around Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase, two of the game's best players, three straight postseason misses are nearly impossible to brush off and move forward from.

Taylor Has No More Room For Wasted Seasons

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor speaks with media during the 2026 NFL Draft, Saturday, April 25, 2026, at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati. | Frank Bowen IV/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"Cincinnati has now missed the postseason three straight years, and last season's 6-11 campaign was painful," Dajani wrote. "Not only did Burrow miss nine games after suffering a turf toe injury in Week 2, but the defense was one of the worst in the league."

Dajani noted that Cincinnati ranked in the bottom three in scoring defense, total defense, and yards allowed per play. That is the real issue hanging over Taylor and, likely, the de facto general manager, Duke Tobin. Taylor is an offensive-minded head coach, but the inability to utilize the defensive staff to improve the defensive unit still falls on the head coach.

“To put it bluntly, the Bengals are wasting an opportunity with an elite quarterback in Burrow and an elite wide receiver in Ja’Marr Chase,” Dajani wrote.

That same sentiment appears to be shared in the locker room and front office as they gear up to report to training camp in July. Burrow and Chase are franchise-changing talents — and Cincinnati should be competing deep into January with that duo, Tee Higgins, and a newly revamped defense.

The Bengals traded for Dexter Lawrence, signed Jonathan Allen, added Boye Mafe and Bryan Cook, then drafted Cashius Howell and Tacario Davis. It was a full-scale effort to address the biggest weakness on their roster.

Some have wondered not only whether Taylor could be out of his job after the 2026 season but also whether Burrow could force his way out of Cincinnati with a lackluster team performance this year. Burrow recognizes the importance of the upcoming season as well; the free-agency moves didn't go unnoticed.

“We need to get better,” Burrow recently told Vanity Fair. “So it was exciting to see the initiative from everybody in the organization to realize that we’re in this exciting stage. We’re in our primes playing great football.”

Burrow is in his prime. Chase and Higgins are in theirs. The front office made aggressive moves on defense.

There are no more excuses for the 2026 Cincinnati Bengals.

If preseason hopes and potential go unrealized, Taylor may not get another opportunity in 2027.

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