CINCINNATI — Sunday went about as badly as a single day can go for a pro sports organization.
Let us count the ways.
• Eliminated from the playoffs for a third consecutive season with Joe Burrow shut out for the first time in his career.
• Beaten mercilessly and talked trash about postgame by a previously under .500 division rival.
• Burrow, already under the microscope for unhappiness, in front of the microphone, pointing out as fact, “We haven’t been a good football team; bad football teams do losing things.”
• Ushering fans into the stadium in frigid temperatures and not attempting to clear the seats of snow and ice. Leaving long lines of fans outside in a bottleneck trying to get in as kickoff neared, without all the gates staffed to alleviate the reported 45-minute delay. Then taking a viral beating from fans online in the process. Fans wore bags on their heads, booed consistently and chanted for firings before hitting the exits.
• Star receiver Ja’Marr Chase was caught on camera yelling at fans who were heckling Burrow to back off.
• Five-year NFL veteran and starting running back on last year’s team, Zack Moss, even posted, “Been telling people, easily the worst franchise in sports.”
This was the kind of day that can leave an imprint on ownership. This was the kind of day consumers hold over a company’s head for years.
Quite simply, this was a day that gets people fired.
The question that remains now, as the Bengals (4-10) play for pride over the final three weeks of the season, is: Will the famously patient Cincinnati organization run this back or will somebody actually be fired for this? And, if so, who goes?
Those are large, ominous, somewhat unanswerable questions at this point. There’s history, contracts, results, relationships and unique organizational dynamics that complicate what might seem obvious in other markets.
Fans wanting heads to roll won’t like the current outlook.
The obvious names being evaluated are director of player personnel Duke Tobin, head coach Zac Taylor and defensive coordinator Al Golden.
Duke Tobin
Yes, in most places, the de facto general manager of a team that missed the playoffs three consecutive years while employing Burrow, Chase and Tee Higgins would be on the hot seat. Specifically, when considering a bottom-quarter defense three years running, impacted by a debilitating series of roster-construction blunders.
That’s just not the case here. There are cracks in the foundation, absolutely. There’s no way around the results and outrage currently directed at Tobin by the fan base. He’s never seen his role challenged or exposed to this level externally.
Internally, however, it’s just not happening. Tobin is viewed as family in nearly the same regard as the actual Browns and Blackburns. There is zero thought that his job is in jeopardy. He will have to lead the Bengals out of this drought, and ownership trusts him to do so.
Zac Taylor
Taylor and team president and owner Mike Brown speak every week during the season about the state of things. So, there wouldn’t be surprises come Black Monday. There will have to be a more focused look at the organizational direction of the offseason. With such a notable conversation, uncertainty will follow. As will the final data points of the last three games, in which Burrow will be starting.
Zac Taylor confirms that Joe Burrow will start the rest of the season despite being eliminated.
As for why he will continue to play: “Because we want to win.”
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) December 15, 2025
That said, firing Taylor still sounds very unlikely right now.
There are a few key points surrounding Taylor’s status. For one, his contract will be a factor. Contrary to prior reports, Taylor actually has two years remaining on his contract after this season, not one.
He signed a five-year extension following the Super Bowl season. Then, after reaching the AFC Championship Game in the 2022 season, he signed another five-year extension through the 2027 campaign.
This matters, considering the history and role contract status plays with Brown, who will make this decision. In the final weeks of the 2017 season, longtime coach Marvin Lewis looked on the brink of departure following back-to-back nine-loss years. Despite loud rumors that it would end, Brown and Lewis agreed he’d stay around for the final year of his contract, adding to the pressure of a 2018 lame-duck season that descended into 10 losses following a 4-1 start. Taylor was hired soon after. Those are the points in time where change is increasingly more likely.
Also, the relationship between Taylor, Burrow and Brown will carry weight. Burrow spoke openly in support of the coaching staff in recent weeks despite external echoes for their ousting.
“A lot of confidence,” Burrow said when asked Sunday about his thoughts on the coaching staff and front office. “I know how hard people work at it, and we have the right people. It starts with players playing better, and today it was me.”
Making and keeping Burrow happy will always be a considerable driver of organizational direction — now more than ever. He’s always displayed support for Taylor, who’s never been shy about admitting all things run through Burrow offensively. They’ve also been able to surround Burrow with players he’s asked for, completing contracts with all four of his requested pieces from his public push last offseason (Higgins, Chase, Mike Gesicki, Trey Hendrickson).
The offense has rarely been the problem in Cincinnati and continued to thrive even when shifting to Joe Flacco on the fly this year or Jake Browning in 2023. They’ve been a top-10 offense over the course of the last four seasons, with Burrow among the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Blowing up that side of the ball with all the problems that need to be fixed on the defense would create an entirely new set of unnecessary issues.
Beyond that, this is Cincinnati. This is an ownership group stoutly devoted to patience and a belief in the people it hires. Brown kept Taylor after a 6-25-1 start to his career and was rewarded with a Super Bowl appearance in 2021. This was Taylor’s first losing season since the original rebuild, and nine games of it came without Burrow. Another 11 will be without Hendrickson. Those factors all hold weight in the discussion.
On the other side, how the team has continually lost close games in improbable ways, play-calling style and ownership’s view of his role in Burrow’s injuries will be in the conversation. Those will all pale in comparison to evaluating his role in helping the defense.
Taylor and Al Golden
The question and critical variable at the center of all this revolves around who is to blame for the state of the defense.
The Bengals’ historically bad unit managed to get worse in the aftermath of coordinator Lou Anarumo being fired in January. As Anarumo landed with the Indianapolis Colts to once again find success and momentum, currently 13th in points allowed per drive, the Bengals, under a new coordinator in Golden, spent much of the season compared to the worst defenses in the history of the NFL.
By DVOA, they were the worst defense in NFL history through 10 weeks.
Who’s responsible for that fact now? Will Golden be the fall guy? Will it be attributed to Taylor, whose expertise isn’t on that side of the ball and hired Golden from Notre Dame to rejuvenate it? Or does that fall on a front office that added minimal pieces in free agency, left a gaping experience void that pigeonholed the Bengals into needing starters at multiple positions in the middle rounds of the draft? Was it Taylor’s decision to push Logan Wilson aside and start two rookie linebackers next to each other four games into the season that deserves the most blame?
Or does this fall on everyone who had their hands in the Hendrickson debacle and failed to trade him for pieces and a pick in March or April?
What’s viewed by Brown and the family as the reason for the defensive problem, and whether it’s deemed fixable with the current crop of coaches, could go a long way in shaping any potential moves.
The positive turn on that side of the ball since the bye has been very much noted internally, and has built a belief that throwing the coordinator under the bus yet again is not the answer.
While they are by no means a top group, since the Week 10 bye, a defense overflowing with inexperienced players and a young line that had trouble finding consistent pressure has managed to move in the right direction.
Bengals defensive rank splits
Stat
Pre-bye
Post-bye
EPA/drive
32nd
23rd
Points/drive
32nd
19th
Success%
32nd
26th
Red zone%
29th
t-5th
Turnovers/drive
20th
5th
Scores/drive
32nd
17th
Opponent ANY/A
28th
25th
“Nobody wants to hear it, but I do think there’s things on defense that have really improved, particularly since the bye,” Taylor said. “And there are some things that they’re improving on that we’re going to continue to build off of that. So I think that’s tangible, that’s showing up. Anybody who’s watching the game can see that that’s improvement being made and there’s a lot of young players that are participating in that, second-, third-year players that are showing growth through the season.”
The Bengals have nearly the entire offense signed and returning next season. They rank eighth in cap space for 2026. Aggressively attacking free agency to solidify defensive spots manned by struggling or inexperienced players, plus another infusion of draft picks, could build on the uptick in the second half.
Those facts are the current argument heard for running it back despite the ugly overall results this season.
Nobody on the staff wants to be turning over the defensive coordinator job for a second consecutive season, giving Golden a good chance to earn another year to rebuild that group. It’s just a harder sell to blame the coordinator two years in a row.
So, while the most likely scenario is Golden stays, how the final judgment comes down on the necessary blame and alignment on the direction of the defense will be a significant talking point not only for the coordinator, but the head coach.
The final analysis on the future of the Bengals’ leadership is that it looks very likely that nothing will change. Three data points remain, and all of those will be taken into consideration after the season by Brown. Even the most patient of ownership groups can only endure so many Sundays like this last one.
There is a long history in Cincinnati of a few wins late in the season helping keep a coach around for another year. That certainly wouldn’t hurt Taylor to add a three-game win streak at the end of the season to replace the bad taste of this past weekend, but Bengals fans who were screaming for changes should prepare themselves for the fact that, at this moment, making no major changes appears the most likely endgame.
