How timing affects the perception of a coach

[Fan_in_Kettering]

Fred and Pistons make good points as usual. I’m going to give Zac Taylor a compliment: It bothers him the Bengals are losing. He’s not taking this well — and I am happy he’s not. Now I would imagine there is probably some significant Front Office pressure building on Zac with each successive loss.

The other factor I want to mention is this: Zac’s first pick in the draft hasn’t played a single snap in the NFL. Who knows how much better the offensive line would have played with Jonah Williams at left tackle? Fred might well be correct and Mike Brown will probably give Zac another year based on the injuries to key players alone...

...but allow me to inject some realism. Good teams find a way around injuries which means their rosters have lots of depth. The Bengals are demonstrably NOT deep at any position on the field and this is a huge concern. The drop off from Andy Dalton to Ryan Finley alone was much larger than anyone anticipated, for example.

So how do the Bengals develop depth? I hate to compare to the team I loathe, but the Steelers are 6-5 and in line for the second wild card spot with what, their third or fourth string quarterback? Le’Veon Bell is gone. Antonio Brown is batshit crazy and out of football. Ben Roethlisberger met his health insurance deductible in about a week. Even with a no-name roster, Pittsburgh is still winning. This is coaching, pure and simple, and I grudgingly give props to Mike Tomlin and their coaching staff. They get it done even when things aren’t ideal.

Zac Taylor may get to that point someday. I hope he does. If he drafts for depth and coaches his players to plug in when their name is called, the sky is the limit.