{"id":846806,"date":"2026-04-01T09:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/846806\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:56:18","slug":"zac-taylor-tackles-bengals-lb-struggles-in-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/846806\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac Taylor tackles Bengals’ LB struggles in NFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> head coach Zac Taylor is keeping an open mind about his team\u2019s perceived mistakes in NFL free agency.<\/p>\n

Plus, the fact free agency never technically \u201cends,\u201d too.<\/p>\n

Taylor found himself inevitably asked about the linebacker position during NFL meetings this week.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

As expected, Taylor backed sophomore linebackers Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter, while defending how the team moved in free agency.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t mean that we don’t prioritize it. It just means, at the moment, the fit has been somewhere else, and so we’ve identified that and added to it,” Taylor said, according to Geoff Hobson<\/a> of Bengals<\/a>.com. “We are excited about our two young guys that played a lot of snaps for us last year, and the development they’re going to continue to see.”<\/p>\n

Of course, Taylor is out front and center as the entire voice of the organization once again. And while he can say these things, one can presume he doesn\u2019t get the final call on signings.<\/p>\n

Bengals coaches have openly talked about wanting to add a veteran to the linebacker room, but various buzz and speculation hinted the team wasn\u2019t in on some popular theorized names or missed out on others.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Clearly, the Bengals attacked edge and safety with the big assets. Linebacker is still a work in progress, which even Taylor can say as much while on his island as the franchise\u2019s representative.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Zac Taylor tackles Bengals’ LB struggles in NFL free agency<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is keeping an open mind about his team\u2019s perceived mistakes in NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[2778,228,13669,227,256,2296,1769,7,4609,9895,6,2729],"class_list":["post-846806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-barrett-carter","tag-bengals","tag-bengals-coaches","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-demetrius-knight-jr","tag-football","tag-free-agency","tag-geoff-hobson","tag-nfl","tag-zac-taylor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116328856579058732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846806","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=846806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}