The Cincinnati Bengals were the worst team in the NFL this past season, going a league-worst 2-14.
It wasn't exactly a great debut campaign for head coach Zac Taylor, although the Bengals' ineptitude was hardly his fault and was due more to a sheer lack of talent than coaching miscues.
The problem for Cincinnati is that a losing culture has permeated the franchise for decades, as the team has not won a playoff game since the 1990-91 campaign.
Taylor understands that that has followed the Bengals and will continue to do so until they start winning some games.
“It’s become such a big deal the last few weeks you can’t avoid it,” Taylor said, according to Paul Dehner of The Athletic. “You got to win more football games to get people to shut up. Or whatever it is, have a higher respect, whatever you want to call it. It’s up to us to win more games and follow our plan, do it the right way, execute it. Build the team the right way, do it through free agency and the draft and keep building the culture we built upon and we will be in really good shape.”
The good news for Cincinnati is that it owns the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and will almost surely be taking LSU quarterback Joe Burrow. That is, of course, if Burrow would actually accept playing for the Bengals, as the phenom recently said that he has “leverage” this spring, per Ben Baby of ESPN.com.
But Taylor thinks Cincy provides a fine environment for players.
“I still feel like there’s a lot of great reasons to come here,” Taylor said. “We believe we are headed in the right direction. Our players believe it. Our coaches believe it. The more we get around players we are interested in, they are going to believe it as well.”
Hopefully for Taylor and the Bengals, Burrow buys in.
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