NFL Insider Gauges Hot Seat For Zac Taylor Following Disastrous Two Games Without Joe Burrow

 Zac Taylor is taking a ton of heat this week after the Bengals' debacles over the last two losses. It has a lot of fans wondering if he's on the hot seat to be fired this season, with just one year remaining on his contract.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer touched on the possibility of that happening (or lack thereof) in his weekly column. He doesn't see Taylor going anywhere anytime soon.

"A lot of people were upset this week. I understand. Ja’Marr Chase evidently was, too," Breer wrote. "However, this is another one where I think people need to take a step back and take a deep breath before any rash decisions are made. Zac Taylor inherited a hollowed-out ghost ship in 2019. The Bengals went to the Super Bowl in their third year. They made it back to the AFC title game in his fourth year. In his fifth year, they went 9–8 despite Jake Browning stepping in for Joe Burrow for seven games. Last year, the defense cratered, the offense had stars in contentious contract situations, and the team went 9–8 again.

"With that in mind, I’ll ask the same question I did with [Brian] Callahan: What exactly would firing Taylor at this point accomplish? I’m not saying there aren’t coaching issues that Cincinnati has to work through. There are. There’s some tough video of the team’s offensive line floating around out there. But if Taylor’s shown anything the past two years, it’s that he fields resilient teams that can work through periods. So give him a little time."

Don't hold your breath waiting for a house cleaning of the Bengals staff during the season. That's far from the Bengals' normal practices, far far from it.

Cincinnati is not known to pay coaches not to work, and that's exactly what they'd be doing firing Taylor with one guaranteed year of salary left on his deal. The Bengals are 2-2 and have climbed out of deep holes before with Taylor. It would be shocking to see him fired at any point before his contract ends after next season.

He will try to get back over .500 this season with a win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.