After the 2025 season, Zac Taylor became the dean of AFC North coaches by default. He was the only one who stayed in his job.
With the Bengals riding a streak of three seasons without a playoff berth, there was speculation that changes would be made, with either coach Zac Taylor or director of player personnel Duke Tobin getting the boot. Both remained in place.
“We think they deserve another opportunity to prove that we can do what we hope we can do,” executive vice president Katie Blackburn told a small group of reporters on Monday, via Paul Dehner of The Athletic.
So is it a make or break year for Taylor and/or Tobin?
“We obviously are hoping to have a successful season this year,” Blackburn said. “I know [Taylor and Tobin] want to do that as much as I want to do that. I can’t predict anything into the future, but we’re certainly counting on, right now, having a good season and going from there.”
How good does the season have to be to avoid major changes? As Dehner notes, Taylor has two years left on his contract. The Bengals typically don’t like to pay coaches to not work.
The biggest question about Taylor’s deal is whether both years are guaranteed. His predecessor, Marvin Lewis, was fired with a year left on his contract — but the final year wasn’t guaranteed.
Whatever the reason, the Bengals didn’t yield to the temptation to try a quick fix.
“Both Zac and Duke are experienced guys with proven success and really good people,” Blackburn said. “We feel good about them for a lot of reasons. I think there’s also that element of consistency that hopefully will prove out to be beneficial, too. I think those are the things that we would rather try to take advantage of and build on rather than having to regroup and figure things out a little bit from scratch.”
Katie Blackburn was joined at the session by her daughter, Elizabeth Blackburn, who recently was given a vice president title. And one of her quotes made its way to Dehner’s story.
“We are trying to take very measured steps to maximize our chances with known commodities,” Elizabeth Blackburn said. “We think we’ve made changes in certain processes, on the roster, behind the scenes, certain things that can lead to different outcomes. That’s hard sometimes to totally see. But certain change comes with big risk. And we think we’re in a good spot.”
We’ll see if that good spot leads to a fast start. They’ve traditionally struggled early in the year. This season, it’s imperative to come out of the gates with as many wins as possible.
If they miss the playoffs again, and if Taylor’s salary isn’t guaranteed for 2027, there will be at least one coaching change in the AFC North after the season ends.
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