{"id":855775,"date":"2026-04-05T21:20:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855775\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T21:20:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:20:36","slug":"zac-taylor-has-one-year-to-figure-this-out-says-nfl-exec-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855775\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac Taylor has one year to \u201cfigure this out\u201d, says NFL exec"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The Cincinnati Bengals went all in on defense in free agency (at least by the standards of this franchise).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Even with the departure of Trey Hendrickson, they should be improved from last year thanks to the additions of safety Bryan Cook, edge Boye Mafe, and DT Jonathan Allen.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">But, according to an anonymous NFL exec, that doesn\u2019t mean Zac Taylor and his staff are safe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThey knew they had to fix some stuff on defense,\u201d the exec <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7165189\/2026\/04\/02\/nfl-free-agency-2026-afc-execs-best-worst\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:told The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;told The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando&quot;}\" class=\"link \">told The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando<\/a>. \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=\"\">And Taylor might not even be positioned to succeed, as the free agent moves aren\u2019t all homeruns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Another exec Sando spoke with was critical of the Mafe signing, calling the former Seattle Seahawk \u201ca DPR (designated pass rusher) who does not play the run at all.\u201d He added thatMafe won\u2019t have as much support in Cincinnati, because, \u201cin Seattle, it was more about rushing four as one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Further, the Bengals may have not gotten great value with Mafe\u2019s deal. The exec believes Mafe is a lesser player than Malcolm Koonce, who the Las Vegas Raiders signed for nearly half the money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ultimately, Mafe will need to become a better finisher, the exec said, and he could potentially be more productive in Cincinnati, since he\u2019ll now be able to \u201cjust rip upfield.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals went all in on defense in free agency (at least by the standards of this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[390,228,14163,35570,227,256,2296,7,9085,393,6562,8575,6,996,237,1503,2729],"class_list":{"0":"post-855775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-boye-mafe","11":"tag-bryan-cook","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","14":"tag-cincinnatibengals","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-jonathan-allen","17":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","18":"tag-malcolm-koonce","19":"tag-mike-sando","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-ohio","22":"tag-seattle","23":"tag-trey-hendrickson","24":"tag-zac-taylor"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116354195465796681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855775","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=855775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}