Bengals: No one is surprised to hear Zac Taylor is on the hot seat

The Cincinnati Bengals are entering year three of the Zac Taylor era and it could end up being the final year of said era if the team doesn’t improve mightily.

After going 2-14 in Taylor’s first season and 4-12 in his second season, the Bengals have to make a big jump in 2021, or the former Nebraska quarterback and Rams quarterback coach might be looking for a new job when the season concludes.

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports included Taylor with his list of coaches on the hot seat this year and no one is surprised.

"Watching the first-overall pick and 2019 Heisman Trophy winner and national champion QB Joe Burrow go down midway through his rookie season is the kind of thing that tends to create a visceral reaction among owners. And while Mike Brown tends to be very loyal with coaches, it’s clear that people are on notice in Cincy that things need to improve in Year Three for this staff. The AFC North is no joke and this team has some serious talent issues on the defensive side of the ball that Taylor’s offense will have to try to overcome."

While Taylor deserves to be on this list considering he’s won just six games as a head coach, I could see where some slack is given. The AFC North is brutal and his rookie quarterback went down with an injury late in the year. Who knows how much better the Bengals would have been in 2020 had Joe Burrow not gotten hurt.

The Bengals gave Marvin Lewis several opportunities to turn things around and maybe that same approach will be taken with Taylor, especially if the team looks better this year. They might not necessarily have to finish the season with a winning record, but seven or eight wins would go a long way for Taylor.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor could be in danger of losing his job this year.

This is a storyline that Bengals fans are going to have to get used to this year. Six wins through two years isn’t a good track record at all and Cincinnati has landed in the top five of the draft in each of Taylor’s two seasons.

At the same time, with a tough division and a relatively young team, some slack might be given to Taylor if the team can’t get it done this year. Now, if they regress and win less than four games, he should rightfully lose his job.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all goes down and what the mark to beat is for Zac Taylor as he enters the third year of his head coaching tenure.