The 4-8 Cincinnati Bengals are one of the most disappointing teams of the 2024 NFL season and are wasting stellar play from star quarterback Joe Burrow.
For a piece published Wednesday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler revealed that some within the league think Bengals head coach Zac Taylor may spend the final five weeks of the campaign working to hold onto his job.
“I’ve had multiple coaches in the league text me this week about the Bengals job, wondering if Zac Taylor is on the hot seat,” Fowler explained. “Not sure I see that given some of the goodwill Taylor has built up there and owner Mike Brown’s propensity for cost control (Taylor has two more years left on his deal). But the next month will be about deciphering what’s real and what’s not. And perhaps Taylor will make staff changes there.”
Taylor joined the Bengals after the 2018 season, and he has guided the franchise to a pair of conference championship appearances a Super Bowl LVI loss to the Los Angeles Rams in February 2022. Cincinnati missed the playoffs last season when injuries limited Burrow to just 10 games. More recently, the team’s mess of a defense has routinely failed Burrow this fall.
According to ESPN stats, the Bengals are tied for 29th in the NFL with an average of 28.3 points surrendered per game. To compare, Burrow leads the league with 30 touchdown passes, 3,337 yards through the air and an average of 278.1 passing yards per contest. He’s third in the league with a 73.9 adjusted QBR, and he’s tossed just five interceptions over the team’s first 12 games.
How Bengals players respond to job-security rumors regarding Taylor’s future beginning with the upcoming “Monday Night Football” game at the 5-7 Dallas Cowboys could ultimately determine if he’s given a chance to run it back with Cincinnati. Not for nothing, but Bill Belichick seemingly wants to return to coaching, knows how to fix a defense and probably wouldn’t mind working with an MVP-caliber quarterback who is just now entering his physical prime.
