The Cincinnati Bengals come into 2026 with legitimate Super Bowl expectations — and a lot of pressure on head coach Zac Taylor to avoid a sluggish start.
FOX Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano ranked Cincinnati No. 8 in his preseason NFL power rankings released Sept. 8. Vacchiano acknowledged the upside of a healthy Joe Burrow, an elite collection of skill players and an improved defense.
But he also surfaced a striking alternative for how the season could unfold.
“Or they could start slow again, and Zac Taylor could be gone by mid-October,” Vacchiano wrote. “It’s a coin flip.”
The warning comes after Cincinnati went 6-11 in 2025 and missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season. NFL.com previously included the Bengals among the teams under the most pressure
entering 2026, writing that Taylor “absolutely will feel pressure to win — or else.”
That makes Cincinnati’s opening stretch especially important. The Bengals host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1 before road games against the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers. They then face the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins before their Week 6 bye.
Taylor has survived previous slow starts, but the consequences are higher after three straight postseason misses.
With Burrow ready to go and Cincinnati having contender expectations, there may be less patience if September starts to unravel.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ Zac Taylor gets ‘gone by mid-October' warning
