Bengals: How one question and answer shows Zac Taylor is in over his head

With each passing loss, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor looks to be in over his head. More than that, his breathless incompetence and arrogance when it comes to A.J. Green and a potential trade is even more troublesome.

0-7 is a tough place to be seven games into a professional coaching job in the NFL. If you’re a first-time head coach, it’s even more tough. Zac Taylor, the rookie head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals finds himself squarely behind the eight-ball. Yet despite apparent good sense, he continues to offer the wrong answer to a simple question.

You might have to forgive Taylor when all is said and done. While he might be part of the Sean McVay coaching tree, his lack of team-building is showing not to be his strong suit. As a matter of fact, he should look west to Los Angeles for a quick refresher on how to improve an NFL team.

Taylor, who clearly missed the discussion on “What To Do To Win” day when it was offered by the Rams organization, doubled down on his previous answer regarding trading A.J. Green, again saying the organization isn’t dealing the receiver. For diehard fans who see Green as the turn-key to immediately winning, this is welcome news. For fans who’d like to see a competitive and perhaps contending product on the field, keeping Green is an opportunity lost.

And that’s what Taylor seems to miss. Does he really believe the veteran receiver is what turns any of those previous seven losses into even one win? More frightening, does he believe with Green all his problems are solved?

There are several ways Taylor answers the question in a way that keeps every opportunity on the table. Vague, especially for a head coach, can be a positive attribute, as Bill Belichick has shown. But Taylor stubbornly refusing to even entertain the possibility with a vague answer, makes him look more like an A.J. Green fanboy than the head coach of a football team in dire need of a reboot.

Time stands still in Cincinnati where the Bengals are concerned, and not in a good way. There is a complacency that has undermined any potential for competitiveness that smacks of professional malpractice. The Bengals organization is being dishonest when they say they want to win if for no other reason every decision they make and don’t make says otherwise.