“We certainly went to a wave of empty years ago. Really successful defenses were really vanilla, and we were really successful,” Taylor says. “Defenses were really vanilla to empty, and now that’s really flipped. Defenses have become much more aggressive. They’re going to attack the protections. They’re going to make your quarterback hot, and so you’ve got to be willing to adapt.”
Pitcher says not to get caught up in tracking the genealogy of various coaching trees because of that evolution factor. He says he could spend an hour alone discussing the Bengals’ shift to multiple motions on many of their snaps the past two years or so.
And, he believes Burrow’s enormous football IQ has allowed them to come up with unique pass protections. It was a passing system, Pitcher says, that started off emulating the drop-back passing game Callahan brought from Detroit and Denver before tailoring it to Burrow’s traits. Plus, the Bengals aren’t in three receivers nearly as much as they were. But as Pitcher says, “Our 12 (two tight ends) can be different than our own 12.”
“One of Zach’s greatest traits is just a willingness to be a problem solver and look at things with an open mind and not be beholden or married to a this-is-the-one way-to-do-it, and this is how we’re always going to do it, and we don’t have a lot of flexibility off of that,” Pitcher says. “That’s just not the world we operate in. And that’s due in large part to his philosophy and how he really has just kind of set the whole thing up.”
That’s not to say Taylor hasn’t taken anything away from the three guys in front of him on the risers.
“Sean and Shanahan have shared history,so they have unique things that they both do. They’re linked, and obviously Zach spent time with them,” Pitcher says. “And how we’ve existed on offense isn’t all that dissimilar from how Kansas City has existed on offense. We’re different. But they lean into the fact that they have one of the best in the world that play quarterback, and they’ve had really good pass catchers, and we’ve done the same.”
If the playbooks of Taylor and McVay each have been heavily edited, Taylor has tried to stay true to how McVay’s energy has transformed the Rams franchise for a decade now with a winning percentage of .617. McVay is one of those guys whose number is in Taylor’s phone, and they can bounce some video clips off each other. As long as they’re not playing in the near future.
“One of the greats. He had so much conviction on how he did everything,” Taylor says. “Whether he believed it or not. But with such great energy and positivity that you wanted to follow him. He got everyone to believe, and that belief has taken the Rams to great heights over his nine years. A whole decade.”
Taylor has replicated the McVay formula for how he treats his locker room, where he has always been praised for taking care of his people. The lunch-time staff shooting basketball games, the coaches’ pickleball tournaments, crafting competitions for the players in and out of practice. McVay didn’t give Taylor any sit-down advice when he got the job in Cincy. Taylor basically watched McVay for his first two years as a head man.
“I want to be competitive in every single thing I do all day long. That’s what drives me. Just bouncy leg where I’ve got to be doing something competitive. Movement.
“I want to see the best in each situation. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to handle it sometimes with some negativity, some confrontation. But ultimately, I want to find the best in all situations to get the most out of people.”
His staff doesn’t divide up his career into eight-year blocks. Like Taylor, they go moment-to-moment.
“He’s a gravity guy,” Rosfeld says. “There are glue guys and the guys that actually pull people together and hold them together. He not only holds people together, but he puts people together.”
Flacco got Taylor right away when he got traded here on a Tuesday and started that Sunday last year. Taylor was able to put his adaptability on full display for the guy who now has 201 starts in three decades and pretty much gets it all.
“I think Zac is really good at what he does. I loved being with him last year, just getting to kind of see behind the scenes and what he does for this offense,” Flacco says. “I was super impressed. I think he’s unbelievable at it. I think, ultimately, his strength is his ability to call a game on offense, that’s his biggest thing. But I also think just the way he relates to guys, and how he feels certain situations out and kind of adjusts off of that.”
Taylor has to pose for another picture this week at the same place. But he’s not in the same spot.