Zachary William Taylor (born May 10, 1983) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). Beginning his NFL career as an offensive assistant, he was the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams when they made a Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl LIII. Taylor was named Cincinnati's head coach the following season in 2019, where he went 6–25–1 in his first two years. In 2021, he led the Bengals to their first playoff win since 1990, ending the longest active drought in the four major North American sports, en route to an appearance in Super Bowl LVI. He followed this up with 12 wins and a trip to the Conference championship game in 2022. In his time with the Bengals, Taylor has won 5 postseason games, the same amount won by the team in their entire history prior to hiring him as their head coach.
College career
Early collegiate career
Despite Taylor's record-setting career at Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, few colleges recruited him. Even his hometown school, the Oklahoma Sooners, passed him over. In 2002, he signed with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, where he redshirted his first year and filled in as a backup position the next, completing the only pass he attempted in those two years. From there he transferred to Butler Community College in Kansas, where he had a breakout season, leading Butler to the NJCAA championship game and earning second-team NJCAA All-American honors.
Nebraska
After his 2004 season Taylor looked at multiple NCAA Division I schools, including Memphis, Marshall and Nebraska. Nebraska had abandoned their long standing running/option offense for an entirely new, West Coast offense led by newly appointed coach Bill Callahan. The Huskers had a rebuilding season in 2004, going 5–6 and missing a bowl bid for the first time since 1968. His recruitment late in the 2004–05 off-season by the Huskers was described as a "lucky break" due to the Huskers' lack of quarterbacks at the time.
Taylor had a rough start, statistically speaking, in his 2005 year at Nebraska, completing 39 of 89 passes for 399 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions in his first three games. In his fourth game however, Taylor had a breakout day against Iowa State, throwing for a school record 431 yards on 36 of 55 passing with two touchdowns. The 36 completions was also a school record at the time. He would struggle again five weeks later throwing for only 117 yards against Kansas as the Cornhuskers lost to the Jayhawks for the first time in 37 years. He would have up and down performances throughout the season, ending in a 30–3 win against Colorado where he threw 392 yards, and a come-from-behind 32–28 win against the Michigan Wolverines in the Alamo Bowl, where he threw a Nebraska bowl record 3 touchdown passes. Taylor broke the school record for passing yards in a season with 2,653 yards on 55.1% of his passes being complete.
In his 2006 opener against Louisiana Tech, Taylor showed significant improvement over his season-opener the previous year, completing 22 of 33 attempts for 287 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. The game after, against Nicholls State, Taylor once again showed his precision in passing the ball, finishing 19 of 23 for 202 yards and a new career-best in four touchdown passes.
Taylor led the Nebraska Cornhuskers to a record of 9–3 with an appearance in the 2006 Big 12 Championship Game, facing off against the Oklahoma Sooners. Taylor passed for 2,789 yards and 24 touchdown passes during the regular season and earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
Statistics
Playing career
Taylor went undrafted in the 2007 NFL Draft. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but was cut, according to Taylor, as he was packing to leave for training camp. Taylor then went to Canada and joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL. He spent the season on the team's practice roster, but did not return for the 2008 season. The Blue Bombers lost the 95th Grey Cup that season.
Coaching career
Texas A&M
Returning from Canada, Taylor became a graduate assistant and then tight ends coach at Texas A&M, serving four years under head coach Mike Sherman, his mentor and father-in-law.