Zac Taylor coaching career analysis.

[Housh]

This is a repost from a thread i made in politics and religion. If you want to discuss the racial aspect of this post go to Politics and religion . This was posted in Jungle noise simply to talk about Taylor’s career. I repeat GO TO POLITICS AND RELIGION if you want to comment on the racial part of this post please. Iv never actually seen Taylor’s career laid out and to make this post i had to research it so this is for anyone who didn’t know.



Zac is a young coach with a solid to bad resume but it shouldn’t have gotten him a NFL head coach job. Period. Upon looking at this career you find that maybe he shouldn’t have gotten many jobs he’s gotten and I’m being serious.

Let’s start…


He’s a college QB and was a pretty good one. Not a natural talent. Had stops in community college and eventually went to the University of Nebraska and set records. Was 2012’s Big 12 offensive player of the year. So his playing career is actually a story of hard work and grind and no one can take that from him. This also explains why Burrow likes him and why he connects with Burrow so much. While not the same they had similar stories. Never caught on in the NFL. Simply wasn’t good enough.

Now let’s go to his coaching career and this is where as a black man i have to give a side eye.


His 1st job was as a tight ends coach for his father in law Mike Sherman at Texas A and M………Yeah we know what this is. Does anyone have to say it? No, but i will anyway. He got a gift from family that he may or may not have deserved. No unbiased person can say he deserved that job. He coaches there for 3 years, i think, and Mike Sherman was fired after sucking too much. So his first stop, he didn’t get it done. Texas A and M weren’t known for their tight ends and tight end was not even a huge part of the Aggie offense.(Which explains why Sherman threw him there) Through his 3 years at A and M Zac Taylor coached 2 tight ends that would make the NFL. Martellus Bennett(Solid career) and Jamie McCoy(1 game). To my knowledge Martellus credits NOTHING to Zac Taylor’s coaching. If you find any stories of Martellus crediting Taylor for anything please let me know.


Let’s move on…

Joe Philbin got hired as the Dolphins head coach and Taylor spent 2012 as his assistant quarterbacks coach. Why do you ask? Take a guess who the offensive coordinator was. You’re right, MIKE SHERMAN. Why is no one else giving Taylor a job at this point? Because he isn’t good enough period. No unbiased person can come to any other conclusion. Taylor lasted in Miami a number of seasons and was promoted to quarterbacks coach. Now THIS is where i finally say he should’ve gotten the job. He was a solid college QB and had a good mind for the position. So imo we have a case of a guy getting gifts in the form of jobs but eventually getting into a spot he probably would’ve gotten to anyway. But the deal is he was helped and he got help black coaches just don’t get. The only black nepotism-like hire i can remember is Tomlin hiring Flores this year. And even in this case Flores is a great coach but it’s obvious Tomlin hired him so he’d have a job.(If there are more black nepotism hires you can name please tell me.) Under Zac Taylor, Dolphins QBs we’re average. Ryan Tannehill had good years statistically but the team was middling and hung around 8-8 and while Tannehill was decent, he never really took him to the next level. So for his stint in Miami you can say he did alright. A good caveat about his stint in Miami is he ended up being the offensive coordinator for the last 5 games of the 2015 season and the team went 2-3 in those 5 games and scored 15 points, 24, 14, 12 and 20 points. That’s 15ppg average. TRASH. Now remember this is a team that fired its coach and likely had injuries by the time Zac got the reigns at offensive coordinator but that point output is not even league average. Maybe you give him a pass cause he was new but it’s not like those 5 games where he was the man, set the world on fire or anything.

Let’s move on….


Zac spends 2016 at the University of Cincinnati. No BS here. He earned this job, had the resume to justify getting this job. Taylor while at UC had no talent like Tannehill at QB. The team was ass and his quarterbacks were bad. I can’t put that on Taylor for not making bad guys good. At UC he was OC and QB coach. Did not set the world on fire. UC went 1-7 in their conference and only averaged 19 ppg which is actually REALLY BAD in college but I’m cutting him slack because that roster was doo doo. Only 3 players on that offense would go on to even touch a NFL jersey.

Let’s move on.



Rams. We all know how this went. Assistant WR coach, promoted to QB coach. Never was the OC in LA. I have no idea why Mcvay hired Zac. Mike Sherman was not involved to my knowledge and I’m having a hard time WHY Zac was chosen. Everything I’m seeing just says McVay thought Zac was smart, which is fine. Well the Rams explode. They have great seasons and a decent offense(Sean McVay is head coach and he’s calling the plays.) Zac Taylor’s footprint here is still up in the air. Goff was decent with Taylor as QB coach. No unbiased person can say anything other than Taylor succeeded here. Especially seeing how limited Goff is.


We move on to Cincinnati and the verdict is still out. His all time record with us is 16-32-1 and if you erased the Super Bowl run he’s been trash as hell. His first 2 years we ranked 29th and 30th in offense. His best year which was 10-7 we ranked 11th and most ppl say Joe Burrow is the only reason this happened. Not anything Taylor or his coaching staff did.

[THE PISTONS]

...and 5 year $40 million extension!!!

[*Nately120*]

I feel like ZT is sort of our new John Ross. He stunk for 2 years but we were content to say that those 2 years didn't count because it was Marvin Lewis' fault. Then he showed promise and we all got full on crow. Then the concerns that he may be a dud resurfaced and here we currently stand.

But when it comes down to it, the guy is in his 4th year and we still don't know what we have in him...I mean, do we truly know if he's good? I mean, like Ross he's good if you take most of the games he was involved in and file them under "don't count."

Also, since his 3rd year was his first year with Burrow for a full season he made it to the SB in the year where he was "technically a rookie" so again, Zac Ross.

[*ochocincos*]

Getting those 3 consecutive wins late in the season to clinch the division and then squeaking out those 3 playoff victories are what I think changed the tone on Taylor for some.

Prior to that, he was sitting at 7-6 with many (including myself) thinking the team was going to miss the playoffs again.
And now starting at 0-2 we're seeing the same inconsistent performance prior to mid-December last year.

I'm willing to have some patience, but only so much.

The expectation is, at minimum, back to the playoffs.
If he can't get them there, he deserves to be let go for a more creative offensive mind. Or bring in a creative defensive guy who can pick a creative OC.

If this team has less than 4 wins going into the Bye, I want Taylor gone.
With that said, there's no way Mike Brown makes that move after last year.
He'll give him the entire year to turn the ship around.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(09-19-2022, 05:08 PM)Housh Wrote: Zac spends 2016 at the University of Cincinnati. No BS here. He earned this job, had the resume to justify getting this job. Taylor while at UC had no talent like Tannehill at QB. The team was ass and his quarterbacks were bad. I can’t put that on Taylor for not making bad guys good. At UC he was OC and QB coach. Did not set the world on fire. UC went 1-7 in their conference and only averaged 19 ppg which is actually REALLY BAD in college but I’m cutting him slack because that roster was doo doo. Only 3 players on that offense would go on to even touch a NFL jersey.

Way too easy on Taylor here.

The 2016 Bearcats had the same QBs as the 2015 team.

Went from the 37th (out of 128) scoring offense in 2015 to the 123rd scoring offense in 2016 in Taylor's 1 season. 123rd out of 128. That's next level bad.

[JumboTron]

Anyone who truly believes that Taylor will be let go prior to his contract expiring is living in a fantasy world. ZT can probably coach here as long as he wants after what happened in the postseason last year.

[THE PISTONS]

We'd probably have Dave Shula if during his beat year he lost the SB.

We'd be worrying how we'll replace 44 year old Akili Smith now.

[*bengalfan74*]

(09-19-2022, 05:16 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I feel like ZT is sort of our new John Ross.  He stunk for 2 years but we were content to say that those 2 years didn't count because it was Marvin Lewis' fault.  Then he showed promise and we all got full on crow.  Then the concerns that he may be a dud resurfaced and here we currently stand.

But when it comes down to it, the guy is in his 4th year and we still don't know what we have in him...I mean, do we truly know if he's good?  I mean, like Ross he's good if you take most of the games he was involved in and file them under "don't count."

Also, since his 3rd year was his first year with Burrow for a full season he made it to the SB in the year where he was "technically a rookie" so again, Zac Ross.

I may be wrong....hard to believe I know   But I feel Zac may be a good HC. I just think he needs to understand he's not an OC and let that go. 

[*jason*]

(09-19-2022, 07:51 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I may be wrong....hard to believe I know   But I feel Zac may be a good HC. I just think he needs to understand he's not an OC and let that go. 

Honestly thought he should've turned over play calling way back when he benched Dalton to "see what we had" in Finley. The team was putrid that year, and the benching of Dalton pretty much signalled it was his fault... Here we are again looking more like that 2019 team than last year's.

[*Go Cards*]

(09-19-2022, 07:51 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I may be wrong....hard to believe I know   But I feel Zac may be a good HC. I just think he needs to understand he's not an OC and let that go. 

Agree 

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(09-19-2022, 08:02 PM)jason Wrote: Honestly thought he should've turned over play calling way back when he benched Dalton to "see what we had" in Finley. The team was putrid that year, and the benching of Dalton pretty much signalled it was his fault... Here we are again looking more like that 2019 team than last year's.

Never forget that Zac used 3 draft picks to trade up and draft Finley. What makes it somehow even more awful is that Maxx Crosby was drafted 2 picks later (and the Bengals went DL their next pick).

[NUGDUKWE]

I remember when we fired zampese and promoted lazor. I remember a story saying that every time an oc is fired in the season the offense almost always gets better even if it's marginally. There were only a couple times the offense got worse and one of those times was when the dolphins fired the coach and Lazor with him. Taylor was the guy promoted to OC that the offense got worse.

[THE PISTONS]

(09-19-2022, 08:50 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: I remember when we fired zampese and promoted lazor. I remember a story saying that every time an oc is fired in the season the offense almost always gets better even if it's marginally. There were only a couple times the offense got worse and one of those times was when the dolphins fired the coach and Lazor with him. Taylor was the guy promoted to OC that the offense got worse.

He has a fine history of making offenses worse.

As a HC he seems to say the right things. He might be OK in that role. Although, I don't know. We nearly always start bad. Is that the OC? Is it game prep?

[NUGDUKWE]

(09-19-2022, 09:18 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: He has a fine history of making offenses worse.

As a HC he seems to say the right things. He might be OK in that role. Although, I don't know. We nearly always start bad. Is that the OC? Is it game prep?

Well I brought it up in another thread. But I saw the stat like many ppl that burrow only has one opening drive TD. Don't most teams have like a script for the 1st 10 plays or something? If we do than I think that's more of an indictment of Taylor than anybody. 

If this season goes off the rails were not firing Taylor unfortunately. But maybe just maybe they force him to hand over the reins of the offense to someone else. He's done some good things and it may not be all his fault. But we have a lot more talent than we are showing.

[reuben.ahmed]

Zac lies to the media, we can see right through it. His attitude is too matter of fact. It would be nice for him to say everyone's got to improve, including himself, and cite specifically things he has done wrong so far. The whole media interaction is staged to me, the people asking the questions are softball, they don't want to get on their bad side or lose their job. Detroit and Atlanta's coach are whole lot more fun to watch, better or worse, lol.

For Burrow to only have 1 TD in the 1st quarter in his career, that is at least 50/50 split on Zac Taylor as it is on Burrow. It's been a pattern for too long and it loses us games.

With Joe, he studies until he thinks he's ready, that's different, at some point in my life I started studying and overdoing it. I feel like Brady probably does that, they're in the gym all day. Not saying Burrow isn't but based on his comment that he only studies film until he's ready, maybe it's not enough. When you have a taste of success in life you think you don't have to change anything.

[reuben.ahmed]

(09-19-2022, 09:29 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Well I brought it up in another thread. But I saw the stat like many ppl that burrow only has one opening drive TD. Don't most teams have like a script for the 1st 10 plays or something? If we do than I think that's more of an indictment of Taylor than anybody. 

If this season goes off the rails were not firing Taylor unfortunately. But maybe just maybe they force him to hand over the reins of the offense to someone else. He's done some good things and it may not be all his fault. But we have a lot more talent than we are showing.

Marvin did some good things. Andy did some good things. Sometimes they're not the right people to win it all. I mean Zac was so close last year and how quickly we change our mind now. We think a lot of good things happened last year in spite of him. The energy is messed up this year, so far, it doesn't look fun to watch and it doesn't look like they're having fun. I think we have came back and won those 2 games it would have been fun, but we'd all still say something's off. I was thinking that last game, why is this not fun to watch - maybe if it doesn't look like they're having fun it translates to us. Humans are social animals lol.

Probably a whole bunch of shit going on and I'm pretty sure some have psychologists that work with them, but maybe we have no hype man anymore.

[samhain]

Joe is looking lost both mentally and physically. He's clearly going though some things out there.

I wonder how long it takes before he decides he might be better served with a different play caller or HC.

That's bad news all around if it happens. The family is historically very loyal to it's HCs. I do however, have to think that Burrow voicing a desire for a more competent coach might make them break tradition. Joe is the perfect candidate to go to another team and be reborn as a superstar again if things go south here. The family has done very uncharacteristic things to appease and convince Joe that Cincinnati is the place he wants to finish his career. I think there's zero chance that they want to see Joe Burrow win a title anything other than a Bengal uniform.

Let's hope it never comes to that, but if Joe decides he's done with Taylor, he may just have the juice with the front office to unseat him for a different play caller.

[Science Friction]

(09-19-2022, 05:08 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: ...and 5 year $40 million extension!!!

Zac is the Bengals' Mike Moustakas as far as bad money contracts go. He may up being worse than Moose.

[Sled21]

This place is amazing! From the 90's through the present, all we heard was whining about not winning a playoff game, Marvin couldn't get it done in the post season. For much of that time just winning a couple of games was seen as overachieving. Then they hire Taylor and in year 3 the Bengals are in the Super Bowl. Now, after a slow start and 2 losses, he's the worst thing since moldy bread and needs to be fired. Here's a hint, we are never going to win them all. No one does. I have no doubt they'll get it figured out.

[XenoMorph]

(09-19-2022, 05:08 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: ...and 5 year $40 million extension!!!

wait when did that happen?

Crap we stuck with him for 5 more years?