Posted November 27, 2025
The Cincinnati Bengals might finally be running out of patience with head coach Zac Taylor, as the combination of a three-win 2025 season and their complete defensive capitulation has put the Bengals in a position where a firing might be necessary.
The movement to kick Taylor out of town is not just the byproduct of frustrated Bengals fans who want to see their losing ways reversed. It seems like many of the powers that be in the NFL are keeping an eye on Cincinnati in case Taylor does end up shaking free.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano is reporting that the NFL is keeping a close eye on the Bengals, in addition to the Las Vegas Raiders and Atlanta Falcons, as a team that could end up making some changes to their head coaching staff.
Even though Taylor has been able to take this team with inches of a Lombardi trophy, it’s very hard to take a look at this 2025 squad and claim they should run it back with many of the same personnel in key leadership roles.
ESPN reports NFL is watching if Bengals will fire head coach Zac Taylor
Taylor defenders will point to the notion that Burrow’s injury sunk the season to the point where it became impossible to field a winning team while calling out Duke Tobin for providing him with perhaps the worst top-down defensive roster in the game today.
However, Taylor’s decision to hire Al Golden as defensive coordinator to run that defense and the fact that he lit three games on fire by starting Jake Browning were both choices that he made, and he appears to have rolled snake eyes in both of them. Taylor can’t keep living off 2021 and 2022 forever.
One thing that Taylor, who has gone 49-58-1 in Cincinnati and 5-2 in the playoffs, has going in his favor is the fact that Mike Brown and the Bengals are notoriously loyal when it comes to head coaches. Those playoff runs with a healthy Burrow might convince ownership that such success is right around the corner if No. 9 isn’t on the mend.
While that isn’t a crazy notion, sometimes it’s just time for a change. Taylor will be remembered fondly for getting this team as close to a Super Bowl win as possible, but 2025 might be all that Cincinnati needs to show the NFL that some new blood is needed in the worst way.
