Rams assistant Taylor named head coach for NFL Bengals

Atlanta (AFP) – Zac Taylor, who helped guide the Los Angeles Rams into Super Bowl 53, was named the new head coach of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals on Monday.

The 35-year-old assistant coach for seven NFL campaigns served as quarterbacks coach for the Rams this past season under head coach Sean McVay for a team that won 13 games and advanced to Sunday’s Super Bowl, losing 13-3 to the New England Patriots.

“I am happy and fortunate to join the Cincinnati Bengals as head coach,” Taylor said. “This is a great organization with good people and a rich history and I am excited to get started.

“I am looking to add to that history by setting high standards and holding everyone here accountable to those standards. There is a lot of work to do and this is day one. We’re going to attack every day with enthusiasm to get this team ready to go.”

The Bengals fired coach Marvin Lewis after a 6-10 campaign, their worst showing since 2010. Cincinnati had reached the playoffs seven times in 16 seasons under Lewis, but lost every playoff game they played. Their most recent post-season triumph came after the 1990 campaign.

“Zac is a bright coach with an offensive mind and background, which is important to have in today’s NFL,” Bengals president Mike Brown said. “And he’s young. He embraces new ideas and new ways to do things, which will be a good thing for us. I believe our team will be exciting and fun to watch with him at the helm.”

Taylor began his NFL coaching career as an assistant quarterbacks coach with Miami in 2012 and spent the next two seasons as the Dolphins quarterbacks coach before adding offensive coordinator duties to his role.

He left the Dolphins for the offensive coordinator post at the University of Cincinnati in 2016, then jumped back to the NFL with the Rams in 2017 as a receivers coach before working closely with Rams star signal caller Jared Goff and his understudies this season.

Taylor, the son-in-law of former Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman, was a rare find even as a youth. He grew up in college football-loving Norman, Oklahoma, the son of a former Sooners captain, only to play collegiately for their arch-rivals, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.