The Cincinnati Bengals are notoriously slow starters under head coach Zac Taylor.
Naturally, that’s one of the biggest pieces of advice thrown the team’s way now that the Bengals missed the playoffs and have started the offseason process.
That advice even comes from former Bengals greats like Andrew Whitworth, who spoke on the subject during a recent podcast appearance alongside Ryan Fitzpatrick.
“I think it’s a great finish,” Whitworth said. “But at some point, you’ve got to sit there as Zac Taylor and say ‘How do we fix the last three seasons of how we started the year?’ Because yes, all these things are positive, great finish…You’ve gotta adjust camp, you’ve gotta adjust your philosophy in the first few weeks, whatever that is, you’ve gotta do something to address these issues.”
What the exact fix is remains to be seen — if it exists at all. But Taylor is 1-11 over the first two weeks of a season so far. Injuries to Joe Burrow and other excuses exist, but the record still speaks for itself.
Taylor himself has hinted, at least, that there will be changes to the process, so the advice certainly isn’t going ignored.