Shout out for Zac Taylor

[NUGDUKWE]

(01-05-2025, 10:30 PM)bfine32 Wrote: This thread was started to applaud Zac and the boyz going from 4-8 to win 5 in a row (2 playoff teams along the way) and finish with a winning season. 

I see nothing wrong with the thread, but others are unhappy and do not want you to be. So telling you why you are wrong to be positive is a coping mechanism they employ. 

Nothing is wrong with the thread and I do think finishing it off well was good to see and they deserve credit. But it's also good to recognize that they are not perfect and deserve criticism because we had a very favorable schedule and we blew it. 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(01-05-2025, 08:51 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote:

As the owners of the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans are now on the clock.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 5, 2025

Zac Taylor coaching tree not off to a great start.

He's technically part of Kubiak's tree, as that was where he had his first assistant position.

(01-05-2025, 09:47 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: It's insane to me that Burrow has only been to the playoffs 2 out of 5 years that he's been in the league. Even Dalton had a way higher % of making the playoffs when he played for the Bengals (5 out of 9 years). Taylor is holding Burrow back

He had season-ending injuries in 2 of the 5 years. And one of them, we were eliminated by the SB winner, in the penultimate week of the season AND could've still won the game with a backup QB.

The things I have read on the internet in the past 3 years are just bafflingly void of logic or any nuance/context, it's minf-boggling that people actually think this way.

[chopperbobby]

Not going to do much with division record and starting almost every year 2 in the hole

[*bfine32*]

(01-05-2025, 11:01 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Nothing is wrong with the thread and I do think finishing it off well was good to see and they deserve credit. But it's also good to recognize that they are not perfect and deserve criticism because we had a very favorable schedule and we blew it. 

There are plenty of threads on here created to criticize. 

[125250]

(01-05-2025, 09:42 PM)sandwedge Wrote: Funny how you disappeared when we went on this 5 game run and when we get eliminated, you reappear with your bullshit. 

Are you content with the bs on the field? You have an incredible season by your qb and top wr, but can’t make the playoffs? Is it bs? From the schedule, it looked like it wouldn’t be a surprise to win out, but you’re content with winning after they’re knocked out of contention. Remain a reason the Bengals won’t win anything, I’m not on your side. 

[Luvnit2]

(01-06-2025, 12:27 AM)125250 Wrote: Are you content with the bs on the field? You have an incredible season by your qb and top wr, but can’t make the playoffs? Is it bs? From the schedule, it looked like it wouldn’t be a surprise to win out, but you’re content with winning after they’re knocked out of contention. Remain a reason the Bengals won’t win anything, I’m not on your side. 

Aru like 6 years old? Fans have no vote on FA signings, draft picks, coaching decisions or control over wins and losses. The only control we have is over our mindset. You choose to drown in your piss. Others like me see no benefit raging and ranting to our fellow fans.

It will be OK. There will be an NFL season in 2025 and beyond. I will choose to be entertained by those teams who made the playoffs and hope we are one of them in 2025.

[Dr.Z]

(01-05-2025, 09:36 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: We had an MVP-caliber QB and a probable triple-crown winning WR and still couldn't get a top-5 scoring offense, either.

Better offensive minds get better results with less.

Right.  He's rolling out to the race with keys to a Ferrari, and it seems as if it would be hard to not have a formidable offense with Burrow and his weapons.   He seems to be a likable dude , and I really liked how he involved the fanbase during the playoff run when showing up at local establishments in the city, but I can't help but wonder what the team's success rate would be at this point with a higher pedigreed coach.  Maybe we would already be sitting with a Lombardi or two?  The futility in developing a complimentary running attack has been annoying from the get-go. Through the first 7 games, they were the 4th worst league-wide in yards per game @ the ground.   It did start getting a little better late this season. I wondered if he might have finally heard me after yelling at the television every week over the past few years (it even pissed me off during times of success w the team).  And it wasn't all the OL either, as they also had the 4th fewest attempts during the span as well (the guards suck but the offense wo a rush attack begets a lot of hits on the qb regardless of the skillset of the line).   

I'll stop venting now, as I could end up with a novel if I start yapping about concerns about the sustainability of this offense and the pressure it puts on the OL and Burrow himself.   

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(01-05-2025, 03:44 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: I do agree the slow starts need to end. On the other hand, it is a long a grueling season and ZT has his teams playing well in December and January. He seems to be the opposite of ML coached teams who started fast and then faded late in season and in playoffs.

ZT is not perfect, no HC is perfect and there is a reason head coaches in the NFL have short stints. I look at a guy like Mike Tomlin, 18 years as a HC and zero losing seasons, yet yesterday he made a huge mistake and did not punt in the first half on 4th and 1. They all make mistakes.

I do wish ZT would hire an OC. i also agree our drafts have to get better. One thing interesting about the draft is ESPN Matt Miller says in 2025 there are only 12 can't miss picks in round 1. If that is true in 2025 and also happened in past drafts, then a lot of teams will miss with their 1st round pick.

Tomlin also hasn't won a playoff game since 2016.....

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(01-05-2025, 11:00 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I am for keeping ZT around but I really hope he considers giving up play calling and letting Burrow and Pitcher just do their thing.

I don't even think play calling was poor this year, I just thing ZTs other responsibilities suffer because he has too much going on during the game. Just focus on game management.

I am not for keeping him around but I do agree with the rest of your post.

Joe Burrow often has to overcome his weak offensive line, overmatched defensive teammates and the poor decisions by his own coaches.

Since this is a positive thread, I like his approach of drafting team captains but it seems like he's moved away from that, too.

[Brownshoe]

(01-05-2025, 11:42 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: He's technically part of Kubiak's tree, as that was where he had his first assistant position.


He had season-ending injuries in 2 of the 5 years. And one of them, we were eliminated by the SB winner, in the penultimate week of the season AND could've still won the game with a backup QB.

The things I have read on the internet in the past 3 years are just bafflingly void of logic or any nuance/context, it's minf-boggling that people actually think this way.

What was Burrows record in the years he got hurt? Let me give you a hint. Not very good.

(2020 2-7-1)
(2023 5-5)

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(01-05-2025, 10:13 PM)Nepa Wrote: Is there a reason you picked "top-5 scoring offense" as your barometer? I mean they're top-6. That is, 6th out of 32 teams. Not too shabby. And this is with a defense that doesn't exactly get the ball back for the offense. And an O-line that was mix and matching for much of the year due to injuries or lousy play. 

Because Andy Dalton has had a 6th and a 7th scoring offense season with the Bengals. He never had a top-5 scoring offense with the Bengals. 

Also people often use top-5 and top-10 as criteria thresholds, I feel like if I had chosen top-6 or top-7 as the threshold THAT would have been the weird thing to do. I guess you could make a case for top-8 being a non-weird threshold as that's the top 25%, but I don't really ever see anyone do that. 

We've had the 7th scoring offense with Burrow twice. This year with him putting up as high of stats as we can probably ever expect him to put up in his career we had the 6th. The current offensive formula has hit it's ceiling and that ceiling is Joe Burrow never having had a better scoring offense than Andy Dalton. That's unacceptable.

Rookie Jayden Daniels just put up a top-5 scoring offense. So did Baker Mayfield. The Bills got rid of their #1 WR and still put up a top-5 scoring offense with Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman at WR. Yet Joe Burrow putting up MVP numbers with a triple-crown winning WR can't crack into there.

[Sled21]

(01-06-2025, 04:21 AM)Wyche Wrote: Tomlin also hasn't won a playoff game since 2016.....

Funny how when it comes to the Tomlin worshipers, his record of winning seasons is all that and a bag of chips. But when it comes to Taylor's team closing out with a winning season albeit not in the playoffs, the bar is moved. 

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(01-06-2025, 09:32 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Funny how when it comes to the Tomlin worshipers, his record of winning seasons is all that and a bag of chips. But when it comes to Taylor's team closing out with a winning season albeit not in the playoffs, the bar is moved. 

There's not that many Tomlin worshippers and a ton of people have been calling for him to get fired for quite a few years now because he is a low floor low ceiling guy who lets his players and locker room run wild.

That said, having a 9-8 record with Kenny Pickett IS more impressive than a 9-8 record with Joe Burrow. That's like reaching 120mph with a Fiat Panda vs reaching 120mph with a McLaren F1 car. Neither is good if your goal was to reach 150mph, but the former is at least more impressive.

[jj22]

(01-06-2025, 09:32 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Funny how when it comes to the Tomlin worshipers, his record of winning seasons is all that and a bag of chips. But when it comes to Taylor's team closing out with a winning season albeit not in the playoffs, the bar is moved. 

That's because when Tomlin has a Franchise QB in his prime he wins SB's. If he had this team.....

[Fan_in_Kettering]

(01-06-2025, 09:20 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Because Andy Dalton has had a 6th and a 7th scoring offense season with the Bengals. He never had a top-5 scoring offense with the Bengals. 

We've had the 7th scoring offense with Burrow twice. This year with him putting up as high of stats as we can probably ever expect him to put up in his career we had the 6th. The current offensive formula has hit it's ceiling and that ceiling is Joe Burrow never having had a better scoring offense than Andy Dalton. That's unacceptable.

Dalton usually had a run game to go along with his passing.

You make VERY good points here.

[jj22]

(01-05-2025, 11:42 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: He's technically part of Kubiak's tree, as that was where he had his first assistant position.


He had season-ending injuries in 2 of the 5 years. And one of them, we were eliminated by the SB winner, in the penultimate week of the season AND could've still won the game with a backup QB.

The things I have read on the internet in the past 3 years are just bafflingly void of logic or any nuance/context, it's minf-boggling that people actually think this way.

The thing is you all have made it loud and clear we are not allowed us to acknowledge his injury history (until it benefits your argument). But we can talk injury prone label again if you want to bring it up as a legit issue in his career projection.

[XenoMorph]

(01-05-2025, 02:47 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Many will trash him.  I understand the concerns. For the record, Zac owns the record for most playoff wins with 5. He holds the record for best playoff win %, He is third for wins behind Marvin Lewis and Sam Wyche. ML has 131 wins and Wyche has 62 wins. It is likely ZT passes Sam in 2025 for most wins, and he will do so having coached less games.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cin/coaches.htm

This ZT could have quit after their 8th loss and very bad AFC record making playoffs a very slim possibility. They did not. It is hard to win 5 games in a row in the NFL, He did it again. I am disappointed we likely will miss the playoffs, but optimistic the FO sees the weaknesses (LG may be the biggest followed by safety) and will address them in FA and the draft.

I will predict ZT will soon have a winning record as a head coach after a disastrous beginning to his career due to poor talent in year 1 and Burrow's rookie year getting injured. Many may not agree, but I don't see ZT going anywhere and him getting us back to the Super Bowl sooner than later.

Congrats to ZT and the team, going from 4-8 to 9-8.

If the season is over later today, on to 2025.

running the table in decemeber matters little when you were out of it after october

[Tomkat]

(01-06-2025, 10:59 AM)jj22 Wrote: That's because when Tomlin has a Franchise QB in his prime he wins SB's. If he had this team.....

The Steelers caught lightning in a bottle with Roethelisberger.  There was literally ZERO indication he was going to be any good.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(01-06-2025, 11:01 AM)jj22 Wrote: The thing is you all have made it loud and clear we are not allowed us to acknowledge his injury history (until it benefits your argument). But we can talk injury prone label again if you want to bring it up as a legit issue in his career projection.

Huh?

Appendix isn't, "injury prone," it's a freak accident that can (and does) happen to millions of people. The timing of it was awful and unfortunate.

The calf is on Joe, but 2 injuries that are NOT caused by fluke/accident does not make someone injury prone, especially when the other 2 were due to fluke/accident. Also arguable that the hand/wrist was also a fluke accident, as it was caused by Clowney falling on top of it.

[*ochocincos*]

(01-05-2025, 02:47 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: This ZT could have quit after their 8th loss and very bad AFC record making playoffs a very slim possibility. They did not. 

Playoffs were always a very slim possibility once they hit their 8th loss.

Credit though to Taylor for keeping the team motivated going into December when they could have easily thrown in the towel and played for draft position.

Taylor deserves 1-2 seasons with some new faces on the coaching staff before potentially giving him the boot.