One of the smaller, if not overlooked elements that need to go right for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020 is simple: Zac Taylor.
Sounds a little dramatic, but Taylor hit the job as one of the NFL’s most inexperienced head coaches last year and had one of the youngest coaching staffs en route to a two-win season.
Much went wrong in 2019 but one doesn’t have to look far or wide to find Taylor admitting he needed to do better too.
And in an early sign Taylor himself might be on the upswing is recent comments made by Joe Burrow about Bengals coaches adding some of his favorite plays from LSU to the playbook. Burrow said the following on the RapSheet + Friends podcast:
“I think the direction that they’re heading is going to fit me even more. They’re going to do things that I’m comfortable with, and that’s a great sign. They had me put down my top 10 plays that I had and send it to them, so they can study them and see if they [can] have them in the offense, if they don’t [already] have them in the offense.”
That’s one way to make an unorthodox, all-virtual offseason (so far) work. Questions about Taylor and his staff’s acumen, as well as Burrow’s ability to transition to the NFL despite strange times aren’t just going to up and go away.
But gradually shifting the offensive approach to better fit the incoming rookie passer is a good way to stack odds in the favor of his panning out while developing.
It might sound like a small thing, but it’s just one of those things that probably helps explain why the entire organization is so all-in on Taylor’s culture makeover.
