After going 6-11 in 2025, the Cincinnati Bengals chose to stick with head coach Zac Taylor despite the team missing the postseason three seasons in a row.

The AFC North saw surprising turnover at the head coaching position, with the Baltimore Ravens firing John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin stepping down from the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Cleveland Browns also fired Kevin Stefanski, though that was less of a surprise.

Not everything that's gone wrong in the last three seasons can be blamed on Taylor, who took the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance in his third season as head coach.

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Star quarterback Joe Burrow missed seven games in 2023 and nine games in 2025 due to injury. However, the Bengals missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record in 2024 with Burrow starting in all 17 games.

On Monday, Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn explained why the team kept Taylor and de facto general manager Duke Tobin. Cincinnati hopes that consistency will help the team this season, though both are expected to "prove" they can build a winner.

"We feel good about them for a lot of reasons," Blackburn said, via ESPN. "There's also that element of consistency that hopefully will prove out to be beneficial, too.

"I think those are the things that we would rather try to take advantage of and build on rather than having to regroup and figure things out a little bit from scratch. We think they deserve another opportunity to prove that we can do what we hope we can do."

Cincinnati made a bold move this offseason to trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence after losing star pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals should be in contention to win the AFC North and compete for a Super Bowl appearance.

Keeping Taylor could pay off, especially if new Ravens head coach Jesse Minter and Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy have growing pains with their respective teams. With 10 head coaching vacancies in the 2026 hiring cycle, it would have been hard for the Bengals to find an elite coach on the market who could have instant success this fall.

However, if this Bengals team fails to make the playoffs, Taylor might not get another opportunity in 2027. He's 52-63-1 during his six years with Cincinnati, and has made the postseason just twice.

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