a recent ESPN article<\/a>. This isn\u2019t too much of a surprise, given the team\u2019s preference for consistency at the head coaching ranks and the perceived leeway they are giving Taylor, given strong finishes to recent playoff-less seasons, as well as Joe Burrow and others.<\/p>\nIt can be argued that the Bengals have seen the best run in their franchise history under Taylor, with their Super Bowl LVI appearance and near-win, as well as a subsequent AFC Championship Game appearance in 2022. However, Cincinnati has failed to make the playoffs in the three seasons since, with injuries to Burrow and others, as well as roster erosion being the primary culprits to the failures.<\/p>\n
As it goes with expectations failing to be met, Taylor has been under the microscope since. When Burrow came back this year from a toe injury and the team lost back-to-back must-win games against Buffalo and Baltimore, respectively, Taylor\u2019s job status seemed to be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n
However, with a couple of recent dominant wins and the team seemingly taking these accrued injuries into account, the Bengals appear to be content with Taylor returning in 2026. In an odd turn of events, Taylor\u2019s contract status was recently revealed to be lengthier than originally thought, with a quiet additional extension given to him after an initial one after that 2021-2022 run.<\/p>\n
Moving away from Taylor\u2019s coaching news with the Bengals, Graziano and Fowler talked about other assistants who could get head coaching looks this offseason. One they mentioned was offensive coordinator, Dan Pitcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t surprise to see Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher on the interview circuit,\u201d they noted. On one hand, this makes a ton of sense, as Pitcher oversaw a legendary statistical year from Burrow in 2024, and navigated three starting quarterbacks in 2025, with both Burrow and Joe Flacco seeing statistical success. He was also a part of the brain trust that spearheaded Jake Browning\u2019s rise to fame at the end of 2023, despite his struggles in relief of Burrow early this season.<\/p>\n
There may be some hesitancy from clubs with Pitcher, though, given his discipleship under Brian Callahan, who was an early termination as head coach in Tennessee. Former Bengals and current Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo was a hot name early this season, but with Indianapolis\u2019 falter down the stretch, those rumors have cooled a bit.<\/p>\n
One other note that Graziano and Fowler made regarding the AFC North was with the Cleveland Browns. It\u2019s unclear what Kevin Stefanski\u2019s future holds, but if certain names become available, that\u2019s a team that hasn\u2019t been shy about major changes.<\/p>\n
Should Mike McDaniel be let loose from the Dolphins, the ESPN insiders feel as if he would be a good fit with the Browns. \u201cMy sense is that McDaniel would be a candidate in Cleveland, should the Dolphins move on and Cleveland\u2019s job open, Fowler noted.<\/p>\n
Regardless, the consensus opinion, inside and outside of Who Dey circles, is that Taylor will remain with the Bengals in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2019, Zac Taylor\u2019s head coaching tenure with the Cincinnati Bengals has been filled with immense highs and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,7574,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-648102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-rumors","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115825603076389741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}