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Zac Taylor’s Culture and Future


SmittyBacall

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For a guy who’s calling card is being a “culture guy”, I don’t remember our locker room culture being this bad in decades. Multiple team captains are voicing frustration, Bengals legends are being zapped of playing time, and at least one player has formerly requested a trade. 


What the heck is going on? Has he lost the locker room? Is he on the verge of losing the locker room? Does ZT need to go? Does Anarumo need to go? What does ZT’s leash look like? Does he remain the Bengals HC beyond this year?

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Considering he took over a veteran team which was 7-9 the year before, Taylor had done miserably. He should have been fired after last season, ala Freddie Kitchens in Cleveland. But making needed changes right away isn't the Bengals way. The Bengals way is to not make any changes and hope things improve. 

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1 hour ago, sparky151 said:

The Bengals way is to not make any changes and hope things improve. 

Unfortunately.  The Bengals have no vision.  If they want to move on from aging stars (Dunlap and Geno), and some other assets (Ross, Shawn Williams, etc...) that's fine but just sitting them and frustrating them makes no sense...

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13 hours ago, Johnny Nix said:

If Zac loses this week, it’s over IMO

They'll let him coach out the season.

I think if they win 6 games, he's sticking around for sure.  At 4-5 wins, he's likely still here next year.  3 is iffy.  2 wins and he's almost certainly gone.

 

As for the OP question, this whole season has been baffling.  Last year you had guys praising him and saying they'd fight for him all day long.  They showed a ton of fight later on in that season when all was lost.  And this season?  Complete 180.  It's bad.

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Yeah, i'm not sure what changed.  It seems like he's giving up on a lot of players he counted on last year and hasn't been communicating well.  I'm not saying thinking it's time to move on from Geno, Dunlap, Ross, etc... is wrong, but I would say that it could certainly be handled better than what has happened this year.  If you can't have the hard honest talk with a vet, than head coaching might not be your thing.

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Unfortunately, it's really only rebuilding year 1 at this point, as he was hired so late and took forever to fill out his staff.  The free agency splurge is a Mike Brown tradition with new head coaches.  marvin got a bunch his first year, but Zac had to wait until this year.  Normally, I would think next year is a promised thing, but the way things are falling apart, I don't know if they can afford it.  Interestingly enough, Mixon has been heard questioning the complaining vets.  So I wonder if Zac has his mind made up on who stays and goes already.  The dumbest thing we keep doing is allowing Lou Anarumo to try to turn a roster full of 4-3 players into 3-4 players.  Dunlap isn't a OLB.  Geno isn't a 34 NT or DE.  Lawson is the only real front four 34 player we have (besides the guys for NT) and he's hurt far too often to build a defensive front around.  I can't stand coaches who insist on their system over putting their talent into the best positions to succeed.  That's an ego problem.  And it appears to be showing on both sides of the ball.

Edited by INbengalfan
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54 minutes ago, INbengalfan said:

I can't stand coaches who insist on their system over putting their talent into the best positions to succeed.  That's an ego problem.  And it appears to be showing on both sides of the ball.

That's a huge issue for me as well.  Any defensive coach worth his salt at the high school level should be able to adapt to who they have be it a 50, 3-4, 4-3, etc...  An NFL coach not being able to adapt to their personnel should not be an NFL coach.

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1 hour ago, THE DUKE said:

That's a huge issue for me as well.  Any defensive coach worth his salt at the high school level should be able to adapt to who they have be it a 50, 3-4, 4-3, etc...  An NFL coach not being able to adapt to their personnel should not be an NFL coach.

Agreed.  College coaches are the only ones that can get away with it since they recruit their players and ostensibly are picking ones for scheme fit.

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I reject the idea that this is year 1 of a rebuilding plan. There is no plan unless it was to let Burrow get Bengalized from the start. 

 

The O-line was terrible last year and might be worse this year. The LBs were terrible last year and might be better this year but the D-line is certainly worse.

We had the personnel at the start of the year to field a 3-4. Dunlap-Reader-Atkins backed by Hubbard-2ILBs-Lawson  is legit. Bynes, Pratt, and Wilson could fight for the inside jobs. 

 

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3 hours ago, sparky151 said:

I reject the idea that this is year 1 of a rebuilding plan. There is no plan unless it was to let Burrow get Bengalized from the start. 

 

The O-line was terrible last year and might be worse this year. The LBs were terrible last year and might be better this year but the D-line is certainly worse.

We had the personnel at the start of the year to field a 3-4. Dunlap-Reader-Atkins backed by Hubbard-2ILBs-Lawson  is legit. Bynes, Pratt, and Wilson could fight for the inside jobs. 

 

Agreed about the o-line, but that's been an obvious weakness since 2014.

 

As for the line, you are projecting quite a bit, unless you are sending 5 guys after the QB every passing play, which is what they were doing last year in the 5-2.  Dunlap, Hubbard and Lawson don't belong in space.

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1 hour ago, INbengalfan said:

Agreed about the o-line, but that's been an obvious weakness since 2014.

 

As for the line, you are projecting quite a bit, unless you are sending 5 guys after the QB every passing play, which is what they were doing last year in the 5-2.  Dunlap, Hubbard and Lawson don't belong in space.

Have we had a “good” OL since Richie Braham retired? Certainly it hasn’t been this bad. But we have had significant holes ever since. 

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