No Joe Burrow? Expect the Cincinnati Bengals to keep fighting...
It's not perfect in Cincinnati. But they've got the right backup quarterback and, most importantly, the right coaches for this moment. Zac Taylor's greatest challenge yet begins now.
Expectations were made clear in the form of earsplitting jeers. When Zac Taylor dropped back to pass in Lincoln, Neb., he could quite literally hear his own fans booing the hell out of him in the middle of a play. Classmates. Alumni. They all let him have it because, hey, that’s life as the starting quarterback of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Two decades ago, this was sacred ground. A position made famous by names like Turner Gill and Tommie Frazier and Eric Crouch.
And in 2006, Taylor turned those boos into cheers as the Big 12 offensive player of the year.
To his core, he loved every second of those ups and downs because Taylor knows the inherent pressure of playing quarterback hardened him into the human being he is today.
“You’ve either got to be for it or against it,” Taylor said back at the owners meetings during the offseason. “If you can be for it and develop thick skin and the ability to lead and the toughness that comes with it, you can do some great things with your life. Whether you’re in business or coaching or playing in the NFL, there’s some great things that can come from the adversity you deal with playing quarterback as a kid. Every snap I ever played in my life was at quarterback. Next thing you know, you’re a head coach and you’re dealing with a lot of the same stuff I’ve dealt with my whole life.”
And then some.
After hearing Taylor’s spirited explanation, I reached out to one person who knows him best: Zac Selmon.
Growing up in Norman, Okla., Taylor, Selmon and Kellen Sampson were all close friends. Little did the trio know that Taylor would go on to become an NFL head coach, Sampson would become the basketball head coach in-waiting at the University of Houston and Selmon an athletic director at Mississippi State.
Firsthand, Selmon witnessed the origins of Taylor’s competitive fire.
And today, he’s blown away by his friend’s positivity through any circumstance. Be it a Super Bowl loss, contract disputes or the reality that these Bengals historically don’t spend much money on much. Selmon is correct to point out that there are coaches in all sports who are quick to find excuses for why they couldn’t win. Taylor, conversely, has always brought a “Let’s figure it out” mindset to problems.
“He’s always been brilliant — even if it’s backyard football — at putting together a team of guys,” Selmon says. “He’s going to take his and he’s going to go beat yours. Because of his demeanor and who he is as a person. People want to go run through a wall for him. I haven’t played football with him in, I don’t know, 20+ years. I’d go strap it up right now with him.”
Those offseason words are proving prophetic now.
Taylor is now without his star quarterback, Joe Burrow, for the next three months.
Last week, the NFL’s reigning passing champ suffered a Grade 3 turf toe. Cincinnati won’t rule him out for the season.
In comes backup Jake Browning.
Out goes realistic Super Bowl hopes in a conference loaded with elite quarterbacks.
At least in the brains of most football consumers, that is.