CINCINNATI — The tunnels inside Paycor Stadium are a cacophony of chaos, as the sounds of construction crews, stadium workers and golf carts mix with music blasting from the home locker room.Zac Taylor decides to dip into a quiet, soundproof room to talk. That’s the default setting of the Cincinnati Bengals head coach, after all. Always has been — this time of year, more than ever.Block out the noise. Isolate to the task at hand.The task at hand in this specific moment is a sit-down with this reporter, followed by an overdue meeting with offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher to clean out the back of the call sheet.Bengals new captains symbolize a dramatic shiftPaul Dehner Jr.Broadly, though, the task at hand is to take arguably the best roster assembled in the Joe Burrow era and create a connected team capable of capturing the first Lombardi Trophy in the franchise’s 59 years of existence.For nine months, piece by piece, the stars have aligned for Taylor. He’s surrounded by more than $200 million in defensive investments, five returning starters on the offensive line, a traditionally stable division in unprecedented transition, one of the easiest schedules in the NFL, preseason health, complete staff continuity, Year 2 of his defensive coordinator change and an OC in line for head coach jobs.Oh yeah, and a 6-foot-5, 350-pound franchise-changer in Dexter Lawrence at the center of it all.Every move along the way increased the font size on the key Bengals headline for 2026: Can Taylor make this happen? What happens if he can’t?His seat, as they say, is hot.“Sure,” Taylor said instantly at the first mention of the concept. “Always.”Indeed, the headline is not new. Taylor went to a Super Bowl and back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2021 and 2022, coming off a 6-25-1 start to his coaching career. But any credit for him was eclipsed by the blinding rise of Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. Even those successes are now outshone by three straight seasons outside the playoffs, including 6-11 last year, his first losing campaign since the postseason runs.Even for an expert isolationist in his eighth season, blocking out every snippet of doubt, criticism and first-coach-fired odds becomes impossible as the pressure mounts around a season of immense expectations.“The ones that get you — this happened last night — ‘Hey, don’t listen to what people are saying. You’re doing a great job,’” Taylor said with a laugh. “OK. I don’t know what people were saying. Thanks for bringing it up, though.”For a 43-year-old head coach who came up as the quarterback at Nebraska, where “you could hear people booing you mid-play,” he wouldn’t want it any other way. That’s precisely why he’s surrounded by a building of believers betting his leadership can take the Bengals back to SoFi Stadium.“You have to coach every single day like your career is on the line,” Taylor said last year. “Pressure is not the word I like; it’s just the job. And that’s what I like about the job. I don’t want anybody else to have this job. I want it.”In 2026, he’s coaching to keep it.What’s being said about him rarely seeps through traditional avenues. No, it’s often the ones closest who spring a leak.Like when Taylor was driving with his son, Brooks, this spring and the voice of Stephen A. Smith popped on the radio.“‘Do you like Stephen A. Smith?'” Taylor recalled Brooks asking.“I was like, you know what I respect? He has to talk about a lot of topics and be knowledgeable on it, then you’re not gonna have a home run every time,” Taylor said. “So I respect the work he does.”Brooks wasted no time reaching his point: “Well, he said you should be fired.”“I was like, ‘well, I don’t agree with that one,’” Taylor said.The Bengals front office didn’t, either, despite extreme fan frustration surrounding Taylor and de facto general manager Duke Tobin in the aftermath of last year’s disappointment.Bengals president Mike Brown issued a statement backing both Taylor and Tobin days after the season. It served as half-support, half-warning. Taylor has two years left on his contract, but it’s fair to say that it might not matter if another season of prime Burrow is wasted.Zac Taylor reached new heights by winning the AFC Championship after the 2021 season. He still has the support of team owner Mike Brown, but 2026 is a critical season. (Kareem Elgazzar / Imagn Images)Everyone in the front office commenced doing their part. The organizationally unprecedented Lawrence trade — giving up the No. 10 draft pick in return — was the main event in an aggressive investment to fix the defense and keep the offense intact. They even paid $6 million to Joe Flacco as Burrow injury insurance.“The front office has taken a lot of heat from the fans, the public, the media,” Burrow said in June. “We can put all of that behind us. They went and made it happen.”Tobin’s approval rating spiked after one of the most locally popular offseasons in recent history. That turned the other half of the equation over to Burrow and Taylor. Burrow called it the most talented roster he’s had around him since joining the Bengals and made comparisons to his 2019 Heisman and national championship season at LSU, something he’d never done before.Taylor didn’t mind the amplification of expectations. He wants players who put in the work to feel confident enough to speak freely, chief among them his franchise quarterback.However, everyone knows that if this season fails, nobody will blame Burrow. Success or scapegoat will fall to the head coach.As for those first-coach-fired odds, Taylor ranks third at 7/1 behind the New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn and the Washington Commanders’ Dan Quinn. Despite his best efforts, he’s heard about those, too.“I know what it looks like when it’s good and that’s what you’re fighting for,” he said. “You just want to replicate that and go beyond it. And so it’s worth being in a situation where people are gonna judge you and say terrible things to you and about you. It’s worth it because if you do the good things, it’s tenfold the opposite direction.”Taylor might work to stay insulated from national opinion, but he feels the local ones. He knows expectations have never been higher around here because people tell him as much. They do so at any and every youth sports field, restaurant, fundraiser or school function.His two boys, Brooks and Luke, and two younger girls, Emma Claire and Milly, have grown up here. He and his wife, Sarah, are part of the fabric of the community.Delivering for this place means more than it did when the transient football coach and his young family arrived in 2019.“I don’t know if it’s just ’cause I live here, but Cincinnati is such a small city,” Taylor said. “I feel like it really will affect every human here in a really positive way.”Taylor takes a 13-minute drive down Columbia Parkway to Paycor Stadium in the early hours every morning. He does so in silence.He says the time is reserved to remind himself what the organization needs from him that day.The result creates what his staff views as the defining character trait of his coaching style and antidote to dealing with every extreme-pressure situation.“Anytime anybody has ever asked me about Zac, to me, the first attribute that I always mention is consistency,” said Pitcher, retained from Marvin Lewis’ staff and with Taylor since his first day. “That is a critical attribute, I think, for any leader. For anybody who works under him and for the whole staff, I just think there is such ease when the leader is consistent and you know what the environment is going to be and that is the same when times are good and times are bad. You know what to expect, that is a very conducive environment to produce your best work.”Staff movement in Cincinnati is glacial — and also an organizational standard. The only major move on his coaching staff in eight years was parting ways with longtime defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo following 2024.Despite going 6-11 and finishing in third place last season, all but one coach on staff returned under Taylor. Nearly half of his staff remain from the 2021 Super Bowl.Tight ends coach James Casey, who arrived with Taylor in 2019, calls him “unshakeable.”In his mind, this staff draws grace under pressure because of the comfort cultivated over time. Whether in the quick turnaround of halftime or an offseason of schematic self-scouting. So much public judgment about a coach focuses on game management and fourth-down decisions, but internally they believe in Taylor because of the relationships, tone and tenor he’s able to create to endure the season storm.“Zac is just one-of-a-kind type of unique human being,” said Casey, who also played seven years for three teams in the NFL. “I’ve seen coaches come and go. He’s extremely intelligent, extremely confident, and just an unbelievable human being. The No. 1 thing that I always appreciate and respect is he’s just always himself. He’s never trying to be somebody he’s not. He’s never trying to put on a show. He’s all genuine. He’s sincere with what he’s saying, and the players can sense that.”Much of the pressure on Zac Taylor centers on not squandering Joe Burrow’s prime. (Katie Stratman / Imagn Images)The Bengals don’t operate like most. Football is the family business. The personnel staff is purposely small. They rank in the bottom quarter of the league in market size.That creates a natural intimacy between players, coaches, staff and the city that surrounds it.As well as a natural target for those outside it.Once the season starts, all other members of the front office take a back seat. By design, they don’t speak publicly. The club prefers Taylor to serve as the primary organizational voice to relay its message — and to take the brunt of criticism.That’s why the defense of Taylor from inside these walls is so passionate among those who know him. They know he’s had to answer for the failures — some of his own making, some not — and has received minimal credit. He’s as much in the crosshairs today as any human in the building.So when Tobin was asked why Taylor was a good fit for this team two days before training camp began, he viewed it as an opportunity to go on the offensive.“I believe in Zac,” he said. “I believe in what he does. I believe in how he manages people and the staff he has put together. I believe he is very quick-minded. I think he has a great vision for players and willing to change the vision based on what he has. I have seen that in action. He’s had high-level success. He has taken us to the Super Bowl. He understands what it takes to get to the Super Bowl. He is very organized. He is team-oriented. The players respond and respect him very well. They enjoy playing for him.”Tobin paused post-monologue, then finished curtly: “Is that enough?”For all the compliments paid, calm created and relationships developed, they don’t mean squat if this team can’t win.There’s a reason “nice guys finish first” never quite caught on.Taylor emphasizes that his team must be better situationally, a priority they’ve stressed over the last month. They haven’t finished games well enough in the last three years. Both personnel and scheme were tweaked to counter the problem. It must pay off.The defense reached historical NFL lows through the first 11 games of last season under new defensive coordinator Al Golden. Taylor hired him to be a pro coordinator for the first time in his career, and it didn’t go well.Taylor lets Golden essentially work as head coach of the defense. However, inevitably, the performance — and failures — of that side of the ball are a blind spot in Taylor’s performance if struggles continue despite the personnel infusion. Hiring Golden was the defining decision of Taylor’s second chapter in Cincinnati.Before last year’s 2-0 start, Taylor went 1-11 during the first two weeks of the season as a head coach. Two of the toughest games on the schedule (Tampa Bay, at Houston) await. A trip to Pittsburgh and a game against the AFC South champion Jaguars follow.High expectations could turn into lanterns and pitchforks quickly.He’s leaning into his core to avoid those pitfalls. It all comes back to consistency.“You got to figure out your team early in the year and then you got to be ready to improve every week,” he said. “That’s what I’ve learned over time is the key is just your team has got to improve every week over the course of the season and to where you’re playing your best ball down the stretch.”Taylor only needs to look back to the two best seasons of his tenure, when the Bengals were 5-4 at a midseason bye each year. Those two finished a combined 17-5, including the postseason.A printed front cover of The Cincinnati Enquirer still hangs in his office from 2021. The headline declaring “It is us” with Burrow lifted up on Tyler Shelvin’s shoulders after winning the AFC Championship. He kept game balls from playoff wins — duplicates at his house and in his office.He doesn’t dwell on the past; he merely appreciates it.Taylor said after beating the Chiefs to earn a berth in Super Bowl LVI, “It would never feel quite like this again.” True, there’s nothing like a young team breaking through together.A different comment stands out to Taylor now. It came from his close friend Dan Campbell in Detroit. After losing the NFC Championship Game, Campbell pointed out that you never know when you’ll get back to that moment again. As a former player, Campbell knew how fleeting these seasons can be.“I had never experienced that,” Taylor said. “Getting there and then not getting there for three years, you thought coming out of ‘22, this is what it is every year from now on. And then we stumbled. And so you don’t take any of that for granted. And you gotta work for every inch you’re gonna get as a team like that. I know that very firmly now.”Zac Taylor heard Dan Campbell’s words about seizing opportunity loud and clear. (Junfu Han / Imagn Images)No matter how hard he tried to block out the noise, he’s been through the muck, called the “terrible things,” seen the first-coach-fired odds, heard show topics about Burrow wanting out and felt the crescendo of doubt surrounding the organization the last three years.To survive and come back out the other side? Yeah, a run this year just might feel better than the first.He allows himself to think about it. During those rare moments when Taylor closes his eyes and envisions what winning the Super Bowl would look, smell and feel like.The vision lands in one place: Home.“Having a Super Bowl trophy for a city that’s never experienced one, that is where your brain goes immediately,” Taylor said. “All these people that have been fans their entire life. Everyone getting to experience the Super Bowl, a parade, a trophy, and it’s forever. Now, it’s on the stadium. It’s forever in the stadium that everyone can look at that and remember where they were.”