By the Tuesday after the Wild Card Round, Zac Taylor of the Bengals remained the only head coach in the AFC North. The Browns and Ravens fired Kevin Stefanski and John Harbaugh, respectively, shortly after their seasons ended unsuccessfully. In Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin resigned from his post as the head coach of the Steelers.
Of course, the Bengals have been something of a model of consistency, similar to the Steelers, in terms of stability. Before Zac Taylor, they had one head coach for 16 years in Marvin Lewis. And Lewis never even won a playoff game despite making the postseason seven times.
With five postseason wins, Zac Taylor has actually doubled the Bengals’ total, marking their third Super Bowl trip—all losses. Prior to Lewis, they did some juggling with David Shula, Bruce Coslet, and Dick LeBeau over an 11-year period. But before that, they had Sam Wyche for eight years. Paul Brown coached them for the first eight years after founding the franchise.
Under Zac Taylor, the Bengals very quickly went from total rebuild to Super Bowl contender to underperformer. It’s been a pretty remarkable ping-ponging of results, and it’s hard to say where things stand in 2026.
Marvin Lewis ended his tenure with three straight losing seasons after a run of postseason appearances fueled by the draft that brought them A.J. Green and Andy Dalton. They bottomed out with a two-win season in Zac Taylor’s first season, but that allowed the Bengals to draft QB Joe Burrow.
After winning four games in Burrow’s injury-shortened rookie season, things changed in a hurry. Suddenly, Zac Taylor was coaching an elite Bengals team, coming up one game-winning drive short of a Super Bowl championship. They even beat Patrick Mahomes along the way, and the next year, they returned to the conference finals.
But the Bengals haven’t even been back to the playoffs for the past three years now. Following two 9-8 seasons, they went just 6-11 in 2025, including 5-3 in games Joe Burrow started. Yes, Burrow’s injury had a dramatic effect on their season. But they still put up points without Joe Burrow while going 1-5 because the defense was terrible. After all, Zac Taylor had Burrow for all of 2024, and the Bengals barely eked out a winning record.
So why are the Bengals committed to Taylor where the Ravens and Browns were not to their coaches? Well, they are the only one with a quarterback who has taken them to a Super Bowl, which helps. Burrow is certainly the most accomplished passer in the division, even if Lamar Jackson has at least as good of a case as being the best player.
It’s fair to ask, though, how long Mike Brown’s leash is on Zac Taylor. After all, the Bengals want to win a Super Bowl while they have Joe Burrow. And Burrow said some things this season that should have ownership concerned. He wants to play because he wants to win, and if he can’t win in Cincinnati, he’ll want to leave. If Burrow can’t win with the Bengals with Taylor, who do you think is going?
