Unless the Cincinnati Bengals pull off any fan's dream offseason, much less my own that vaults them into Super Bowl contention with ease, they're going to struggle in 2026.
This isn't a hot take. It's less about the Bengals' players and more about their lack of in-house answers to meaningfully ascend from a six-win team to playoff territory. The AFC is a strong conference across the board.
Furthermore, Cincinnati's front office is notoriously conservative in free agency most years. The draft also tends not to bear much fruit unless it's a no-brainer pick like Joe Burrow or Ja'Marr Chase.
All this means head coach Zac Taylor is on the hot seat. Not because he's dreadful at his job. Not because he ain't a good dude. Not because he doesn't have buy-in from the most important players in the locker room on offense. It's because de facto GM Duke Tobin has held his post since 1999, and the Bengals are a family business for better or worse (mostly for worse).
So if there's going to be actual change to the organization, Taylor will be the fall guy before Tobin. And while Taylor is under contract through the 2027 season, if the Bengals miss the playoffs or get embarrassed on Wild Card Weekend, there's little chance he keeps his job. Something drastic would need to be done to prevent Burrow from demanding a trade.
In thinking about who's next, if it ain't Mike McDaniel, I landed on someone who would indubitably bring radical change to Cincinnati.
New Rams assistant Kliff Kingsbury likely to be next head coach from Sean McVay tree...a la Zac Taylor
How quickly things change in the NFL. Kliff Kingsbury went from the brilliant, resurgent Washington Commanders offensive coordinator who helped Jayden Daniels to the greatest quarterback season ever from a rookie. That Kingsbury-Daniels duo drove a previously disastrous franchise to within one win of a Super Bowl appearance.
Then, Daniels got banged-up throughout the 2025 campaign, Washington's aged roster cratered, Dan Quinn's defensive scheme looked dated, and the Commanders collapsed.
This culminated in Kingsbury's exit. Although he's taking a bit of a demotion, he couldn't have landed in a much better spot: The Los Angeles Rams as a senior offensive assistant.
More about former Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury joining the Los Angeles Rams coaching staff, via @sarahbarshop:https://t.co/XBktQWuMqh
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 6, 2026
Once upon a time, Zac Taylor was on Sean McVay's Rams staff as the QB coach in 2018. He took the Bengals job right after that one-year stint. Kingsbury could be on that exact same trajectory — and he has far more experience on his resume to boot.
Kliff gets a pretty bad rap. Is it because he's too good-looking and folks are jealous? Who knows.
Many point to his tenure as a head coach at Texas Tech as reason to not believe in Kingsbury's leadership capacity. But is it just me, or is he, like, super slept-on?
This man was pivotal to the development of Patrick Mahomes. He had the foresight to move off Baker Mayfield, a future No. 1 overall pick, in favor of Mahomes back in those Texas Tech days.
Kingsbury also helped Johnny Manziel dominate the SEC and blaze a path toward being a first-round pick despite his outlandish partying habits. He aided Caleb Williams' journey to No. 1 overall pick status at USC.
With hindsight being 20/20, Kingsbury also got a lot out of Kyler Murray when he was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Anyone know how the Cards have done since Kingsbury fled? Not great! And they seemingly can't boot Kyler out the door fast enough this offseason.
Why Kliff Kingsbury is logical Zac Taylor successor as next Bengals head coach
I could be missing some, but beyond Taylor, I believe six other ex-McVay assistant coaches have become NFL head coaches since he started in LA: Kevin O'Connell, Liam Coen, Matt LaFleur, Raheem Morris, Brandon Staley, and now, new Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur. How about that!?
That's a pretty decent batting average if you ask me. Would only consider Staley an abject failure with the Chargers. Morris had the weirdest QB situation imaginable in Atlanta just now.
So beyond the McVay coaching tree logic, Kingsbury would bring a refreshing, decidedly new flavor to Cincinnati if he got the gig after Taylor.
The biggest change: Usage of no-huddle offense. This trend has run for many years, but let me quickly walk you through the contracts between Kingsbury's offenses and what the Bengals have run, dating back to the start of Burrow's career in 2020 (h/t Sharp Football ;NFLsavant.com):
Bengals / Kliff Kingsbury no-huddle usage (NFL rank)
- 2020: 1.88% (31st) / 31.85% (1st)
- 2021: 3.96% (27th) / 29.48% (1st)
- 2022: 3.41% (29th) / 28.76% (1st)
- 2023: 2.39% (30th) / (N/A, Kingsbury at USC)
- 2024: 2.13% (31st) / 45.45% (1st)
- 2025: 2.9% (30th) / 60% (1st)
Now look, huddling versus not huddling isn't good or bad, but just think about how compelling it'd be to watch Burrow operate and attack defenses with them on their heels to this degree. They'd be racing to substitute, simplifying coverages by necessity of the tempo, and it'd be very hard to stop.
Look at the success Kingsbury had in Washington in 2024, never mind how good Murray looked at times in that system. Now blend Kingsbury's extensive knowledge with the elite football IQ of Burrow, and the Bengals would have something seriously cooking.
The Rams led the NFL in play-action rate in 2025, too, whereas Cincinnati was dead-last. Some of that boils down to Burrow's preference. But a viable run game and play-action could help take so many of the hits off him. While data on play-action passing is hard to track down from prior years, Kingsbury's Washington unit ranked eighth this past season.
For those concerned about Kingsbury's defense and his planning for that, well, he used to employ Vance Joseph as his defensive coordinator in Arizona.
How's Joseph doing nowadays? Oh right, he just called the shots fro the AFC No. 1 seed Denver Broncos, who lost 10-7 in the AFC Championship Game.
And people do realize how much of a mess the Cardinals organization is, right? The NFLPA regards them as the very worst in the league. Visit that link to learn more. They're hamstrung in perpetuity by owner Michael Bidwill. They play in an impossible NFC West division. Mike LaFleur would pull off the coaching job of the century if he turned that thing around before 2028, Do you see that happening? Yeah, me neither.
Bottom line/final point: Kingsbury has dealt with an under-resourced organization like the Bengals before. The far worse version of it out west. He knows how to navigate that. If he got the chance to be in charge of this Cincinnati offense, you better believe Kingsbury would pounce on that opportunity.
...And I think that'd be one way the Bengals could finally get over the hump and win that Super Bowl. But hey, let's see how the season plays out.