Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor isn’t in great company after starting 0-7 during his first year.
Taylor’s failure to win a game over the first seven weeks puts him with a handful of other coaches who have started 0-7 in the Super Bowl era.
And most of them never panned out.
Two exceptions first — Jimmy Johnson started 0-7 with the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 and finished 80-64 in the regular season, winning two Super Bowls. Bill Walsh started 0-7 in 1979 and finished 92-59-1 with three Super Bowl titles.
The rest is miserable. Of the notables to start 0-7 since 1970, six never reached double-digit wins in a season. Funnily enough, the winningest coach on this mostly miserable allotment of slow starters who never cracked .500 was Forrest Gregg at 75-85-1.
Based on how this season has gone so far, Taylor can’t spend time worrying about evening out to .500 — he’s got to worry about winning more than two or three games.
Given how the Bengals have approached head coaches lately, Taylor figures to be given a few years to enact his vision. But the history here is something to keep in mind.
