Despite three straight playoff misses, the Cincinnati Bengals retained head coach Zac Taylor, who now faces a win or bust season.
Zac Taylor enters the 2026 season facing the most pressure of his tenure with the Cincinnati Bengals. The franchise has missed the playoffs in three straight seasons, including a disappointing 6-11 campaign in 2025 that left fans questioning whether Taylor was still the right coach to lead a roster built around Joe Burrow.
Despite multiple calls to fire Taylor, the front office opted to keep him in Cincinnati for another year. Taylor remains under contract through the 2027 season and will enter 2026 with the full support of ownership.
On Monday, Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn made the organization’s position clear.
“I think both Zac and Duke are experienced guys with proven success and really good people, and we feel good about them for a lot of reasons,” Blackburn said during a media session. “We think they deserve another opportunity to prove that we can do what we hope we can do” (via Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway).
This is a huge vote of confidence coming from Blackburn despite the team’s lack of success in recent years. At the same time, however, Taylor’s margin for error has largely disappeared.
For starters, the AFC North looks very different than it did a year ago. The Baltimore Ravens moved on from John Harbaugh after 18 seasons and hired Jesse Minter, while the Pittsburgh Steelers parted ways with Mike Tomlin and hired former Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy. The Cleveland Browns also fired Kevin Stefanski and hired Todd Monken.
Taylor is now the longest-tenured head coach in the division despite coming off a losing season, and expectations have only increased.
The Bengals’ decision to stay the course is rooted in what Taylor accomplished earlier in his tenure. After inheriting a team that finished 2-14 in 2019, he guided Cincinnati to Super Bowl LVI in just his third season and followed it with a second consecutive AFC Championship Game appearance. Those runs remain the high point of the Burrow era and the primary reason the franchise continues to believe in Taylor’s leadership.
What has changed significantly in 2026 is the roster around him. Cincinnati spent aggressively this offseason, trading for Dexter Lawrence and adding veterans such as Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook, Jonathan Allen and Kyle Dugger while also investing heavily in the draft. The Bengals now carry more than $290 million in active cap spending, the third highest total in the NFL.
In other words, the excuses are gone.
Burrow is healthy, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins remain in their prime years, the defense has been rebuilt, and the front office has committed significant resources to improving the roster. Not to mention the Bengals’ 2026 schedule, which is viewed as one of the more favorable slates in the league.
Blackburn’s comments may have reaffirmed the organization’s confidence in Taylor, but they also put the stakes of the upcoming season into perspective: Taylor has been given another opportunity and he has to deliver results. A fourth consecutive season without a playoff appearance would be difficult to justify given the talent, investment and expectations surrounding this roster.
The Bengals open their 2026 campaign against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sep. 13 at Paycor Stadium.
