When things haven’t gone well for Zac Taylor’s Cincinnati Bengals offense over the last few years, two major questions pop up.
One: Will the Bengals do more under-center looks?
Two: Will Taylor hand off the play-calling duties?
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Yes and no, to keep it short and sweet. Taylor remains adamant about the collaborative effort of the offense. And he remains flexible.
Taylor recently commented on the gradual shift away from the empty looks for Joe Burrow in recent years, as captured by Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“We certainly went to a wave of empty years ago. Really successful defenses were really vanilla, and we were really successful. 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.”
We’ll see what new wrinkles Taylor and the Bengals throw into the offense in 2026. But the team could be looking at adding help at wideout and tight end soon to improve depth, if not get a few more options on this topic of steady evolution.
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The never-ending chess match between NFL offenses and defenses won’t slow, so the Bengals are once again throwing their faith in Taylor that he has the right answers to keep ahead of the defensive evolution.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Zac Taylor comments on evolving Bengals’ offense