Advertisement

What comes next for Bengals, Zac Taylor following AFC title game loss to Chiefs

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor held his final team meeting on Monday after losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's AFC championship game.

Players and coaches call this day the last day of school.

In many ways, it is. The team that took the field one last time at Arrowhead Stadium won’t be the same team you see in 2023. It’s just how the NFL works.

Some players will be back when the team starts their offseason program in late April. Some will be with other teams. Most coaches will return, and a few could move on to other opportunities.

Both of Cincinnati's coordinators, Lou Anarumo and Brian Callahan, are in the interview process for head coaching jobs with other NFL teams. Anarumo and Callahan are both scheduled to interview with the Arizona Cardinals this week. Callahan earned a second interview with the Indianapolis Colts.

NEVER MISS A SNAP: Sign up for our NFL newsletter for exclusive content

Knowing this as Taylor stood in front of his team, he wanted to make sure he got two points across.

"It can still sting and you can be really proud of what you achieved with this group of guys," Taylor said during his Monday press conference.

Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor reacts in the closing moments of the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor reacts in the closing moments of the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

While the loss hurts, he wanted to make sure his players understood his appreciation for their efforts this season. Through constant adversity, his locker room never cracked. The cohesiveness with this Bengals team off the field was a key reason it won 10 games straight and went back trip the AFC championship game for a second consecutive year.

"You looked at Halloween and we were 4-4 and you looked up and we were 14-4 and back-to-back AFC North champs and back-to-back AFC championship game appearances," he said. "There's a lot to be proud of and continue to build off of. I hope the guys understand that."

There’s a lot of important decisions to be made over the next few months for the Bengals, starting with the negotiations of quarterback Joe Burrow’s next contract. Burrow and the Bengals are now eligible to begin conversations about his second deal as he just completed his third season in the NFL.

After that, the focus will turn to free agency where the Bengals’ front office will make several roster decisions. Five total starters are scheduled to become free agents when the new league year begins on March 15: Jessie Bates, Germaine Pratt, Vonn Bell, Eli Apple and Hayden Hurst headline the list.

All the while, the Bengals will likely start another negotiation process – this one with wide receiver Tee Higgins. Cincinnati’s young star wide receiver Tee Higgins will be entering the final year of his rookie deal next season. The team will try and keep him and Burrow together, but the negotiations might not be easy as the wide receiver market is accelerating each year.

What the Bengals do in free agency will shape their plans in the NFL draft which takes place at the end of April. Then, it’s the offseason program and before you know it, training camp begins at the end of July.

The NFL calendar moves fast, and it’s timeline is jam-packed.

But before Taylor can even start processing what comes next, exit interviews with his players needed to take place. These interviews are important to Taylor, knowing some of the interviews could be the last time he meets with a specific player.

And that’s the tough part of the business.

"They know how we feel about them certainly (the) guys whose contracts are up," Taylor said. "It's a great group of guys, I think you all know that from interviewing them. There's probably nobody where you don't want to deal with them. It shows what we have in the locker room. Now the next phase of the NFL happens where you start to go through this transitionally into free agency and we'll see how it plays out for a lot of guys."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bengals offseason: How Zac Taylor, team move on after loss