{"id":852534,"date":"2026-04-04T03:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852534\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:11:19","slug":"bengals-zac-taylor-hot-seat-assessed-by-nfl-execs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852534\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals&#8217; Zac Taylor hot seat assessed by NFL execs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 3, 2026, 12:50 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The idea of <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> head coach Zac Taylor being on the hot seat in 2026 isn\u2019t a new one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But it is interesting to hear the idea coming from those within the NFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">One anonymous NFL executive recently went on record with how they look at the situation with the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cincinnati-bengals\/327\" data-autotag=\"6d3e484d-5133-4c06-a871-967f8646390b\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Bengals<\/a> right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cThey knew they had to fix some stuff on defense,\u201d an exec told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7165189\/2026\/04\/02\/nfl-free-agency-2026-afc-execs-best-worst\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Sando<\/a> of The Athletic. \u201cIt looks like they are saying, \u2018You guys have one year to figure this out. Otherwise, we can get out of the coach\u2019s contract.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Granted, Taylor appeared to be on the hot seat after last season, only for the Bengals to go all-in around him again, banking on the idea that continuity is more prone to success than starting over at this point in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Last winter, when Taylor hot seat buzz really spiked, a report conveniently suggested that Taylor actually has two years left on his deal, not one. It alleges that the <a href=\"http:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/12\/16\/zac-taylor-contract-details-hint-bengals-future\/87790932007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bengals did a secret extension that was never reported<\/a>, basically.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Still, people inside the NFL see it like fans on this topic: Another playoff miss can\u2019t happen in Cincinnati. The Bengals like to let contracts run their course, yes, but another wasted year of Joe Burrow\u2019s prime would surely move even that front office into action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 3, 2026, 12:50 p.m. ET The idea of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor being on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,95913,96121,95896,95888,95897,95884,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-852534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbengals","16":"tag-sstsnbengals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","19":"tag-tagjoe-burrow","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnfl","22":"tag-tagoverall-negative","23":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852534","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=852534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}