Bengals fans better hope what Zac Taylor just said in his presser is true

Zac Taylor may have another year on his contract, but the Cincinnati Bengals are unraveling in real time, and his job is very much at stake for the rest of this season.

Taylor is not naive to that reality. This is the NFL, and in the midst of yet another major Joe Burrow injury, he doesn't have anywhere to hide, nor does he have the luxury of a superstar quarterback to bail him out.

Cincinnati has sputtered to two consecutive losses by a combined score of 76-13. If there's going to be a drastic change made to turn things around, however, Taylor indicated in Wednesday's presser that it won't come at the most impactful position on the field.

Zac Taylor fully believes in Bengals QB Jake Browning to spark bounce back on offense

Jake Browning played at a very high level in 2023 when he had to sub in for Burrow, completing 70.4% of his passes en route to a 4-3 record as a starter. Alas, Browning has looked like a shell of that starting-caliber player he appeared to be two seasons ago.

Although Taylor publicly acknowledged that Bengals lead exec Duke Tobin has floated possible candidates to compete with Browning — Russell Wilson, perhaps? — it's likely Cincinnati will roll with its current field general for the foreseeable future.

"I think with every position we're always assessing. That's Duke's job, that's the personnel department — they do a great job of that. Presenting us options when Joe went down of other guys we can bring in the room as well. So we thoroughly exhaust that. I've got a ton of confidence in Jake. I'm unwavering in that. I've seen the best of Jake. I know that we can do a great job supporting him to where he can go win games for us. So I feel extremely confident in Jake Browning."

The key part of Taylor's impassioned monologue comes from his faith in the Bengals doing enough around Browning to continue delivering victories. That means Taylor himself will have to scheme up some clever ways to get that done.

Here's the issue there's no proof whatsoever over the past two weeks that Taylor is capable of such things. Despite his successful history with Browning under center, Taylor has done very little to inspire confidence in Who Dey Nation this season that things can turn around.

One massive, persistent issue entering Sunday's Week 5 duel with the visiting Detroit Lions is the complete lack of a viable rushing attack. Detroit allows less than four yards per carry. Bad news for the home team.

Chase Brown is averaging just 2.3 yards per carry, and Taylor has done nothing to diversify the game plan or manufacture carries for other players. Might be just me, but it sure seems like deploying Ja'Marr Chase on the occasional jet sweep could be a dynamic wrinkle to add to the call sheet!

Cincinnati's offensive line continues to be a major weakness, too. Some of that is on Taylor putting Browning in shotgun so often and putting the Bengals' blockers in a lot of tough spots via true pass sets. Defenses have had free rein to tee off on the one-dimensional Bengals offense.

For Taylor's statement to be proven true, it's on him to get Browning more easy completions, establish the run better via Brown, and get way more out of the immensely gifted group of skill position players than he has in 2025 to date.

Otherwise, to invoke Burrow in a humorous way so as to avoid me weeping to myself for the rest of the day, this season is Joe-ver.

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