Zac Taylor - Head Coach, bengals Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-05 | Full transcript (primary source).
Zac Taylor, Head Coach of the Bengals, addressed the media during a press conference on September 5, 2026. The session focused on the team's preparations and situational practices as they gear up for the upcoming season.
Transcript
Taylor: It's a great, I mean, I won't share everything I shared with the team, but it's just a great opportunity for us to get game-like situations that we can manage a little bit and make sure we get a lot of different situational work. Guys are excited. Feels like a game day, you know, I think when they show up to the facilities, so, excited for it.
Taylor: Well, that's not what we want. We want the narrative to be about how well we play today. So, that's our number one focus.
Unknown: Zach, I talked to you shortly after the Bears hired Ben Johnson. Your offensive staff was full, you looked away, and then you said you considered hiring him as a defensive coach.
Taylor: That's a good question. There's a quarterback, so he immediately plays him secondary, but I think he's got a little bit of a linebacker mentality to him, so he's, you know, it's obviously impossible to say, but he's a smart guy, and I think had he been on the defense side of the ball, he would have fared very well. Do I wish I would have hired him? I think we got great coaches on our staff. I've always thought so highly of Ben, that's why I've mentioned him in this room without you being in here many times before. So, there's no surprise where he's at. Great coaches like that, it's hard to hang on to him for very long, so he probably wouldn't have been here very long.
Unknown: How are Dax and Brian Cook?
Taylor: They're progressing. They started to run a little bit more on the side of the rehab field, so I won't put a timeline on it, but encouraged by the progress that they're making.
Unknown: You can get the work if you want today, we'll burrow, sit, sit on it.
Taylor: Yeah, I'm planning on sitting the starters, really, no matter how practice goes today.
Unknown: So, how do you look about bearing the features?
Taylor: Their ownership, I really see that with them, the rapport with the other guys on defense. So, we have a lot of veteran players that have leadership qualities to them, I think they haven't shied away from that. They play with a lot of energy, but I think that they're really taking ownership of the defense, and that's been really encouraging for key positions like that to be able to show the rest of the team, and we've seen that from them.
Unknown: Guys, the back up offensive line, I would imagine, will probably get the head and toes up today inside of it.
Taylor: Yep, so, yeah, the twos will get a lot of reps today, not as many as the ones, and then we'll get to play on Saturday.
Unknown: Dax and Brian, do you have any more clarity on the timeline for Shamar?
Taylor: Yeah, he's still working along, so again, I think everything's been encouraging for the guys, they got hurt early in camp for us, there's been no setbacks or anything, so again, I'll stay away from the timelines. But, been encouraged by everything I've seen from all those guys so far.
Unknown: Will you all play today and Saturday?
Taylor: Let's start with today, yeah, he's playing today, and then we'll get to Saturday.
Unknown: What have you liked about kind of getting him back into the next offensive?
Taylor: I mean, it's like a, I know he was in a car crash, it's a little silly to say that, but it's like a car crash in every play, I mean, that's the mentality he plays with, and it's really good for our offense to be able to utilize the guy in a lot of different ways that way, but loves football. I think everyone who's talked to him sees that very clearly, really excited to get him back out there and get a chance to compete versus another team. For him, I mean, this is a long time coming, he did it, you know, almost two years ago now, and so I think for him to have the opportunity to hit someone other than a bangle or a car is exciting for him, and I'm excited for him too. I mean, this guy's really worked hard in the rehab phase for someone who's really had football taken away from him for close to two years, and now he gets a chance to get back there, I'm happy for him.
Unknown: What was your reaction when you heard the car story?
Taylor: Well, it was like, I could see something on his, you know, like he had a little, not scar on his face, but he could tell something happened, and then, so I went, it's not surprising.
Unknown: He didn't call you, or just happened?
Taylor: No, I saw him on the field, you know, so I think he kept that one to himself.
Unknown: If this is the last game like Rebs, Joe gets, obviously, you haven't said what you plan to do with the third three seasons, but for him and where he's at in his career, how will you evaluate, like, what certain things are you going to do? What are you looking for in this specific practice that you're treating like a game to see how he's progressed ahead of the season?
Taylor: Well, I mean, measuring his progression is really difficult. I mean, he plays at a really high level. I think it's just about finding consistency with how we're going to call the early season, and trying to get our starters, many reps, that stuff, to where we really fill in a group. We've seen a lot of different fronts and coverages. That, at this point, training camp, once we kind of get through today, this practice, that's the focus is how many reps can we get at the things that we anticipate calling early in the season over the next two and a half weeks to make sure that our starting groups feel comfortable, and they've seen all the ins and outs of the different looks that the defense can run.
Unknown: What's the challenge there?
Taylor: I think it's his skill set within their offense. So, yeah, they've seen our offense over and over and over, and maybe over time, you see some tendencies from the guy you're lining up across or the formation. And so now it's all new. I mean, we've studied them very little to prepare for this, more than zero, but very little. So I think for our guys to get out there and react to different schemes and the great quarterback that they have, they have tremendous talent. I mean, it's not just Caleb, it's everybody inside. They utilize those guys. So I think it'll be really good for our guys to see how they refer to his playmaking building.
Unknown: You know, so there's so many things on air that you can see from a quarterback. He's obviously got a ton of talent. I've watched him since he was at Oklahoma. But once he gets into a game, he's like a lot of great quarterbacks. They just make a play sometimes, and there's not a play to be made. And I think he can really extend. He's really strong in the pocket, somewhere to Joe. I think Joe's got the same quality. Caleb's right there. He's, you know, the throw he made in whatever playoff game that was where he backs up 30 yards and throws in the back popcorn in the end zone. That's a throw that not many guys in this league can make, and he's impressive to watch.
Unknown: Exactly. Given that we all kind of came for granted, Joe's technicalities in the pocket, like what specifically makes him so elite?
Taylor: I think how quickly he sees and diagnoses a defense. And so, you know, there's things he can say coming off of a play about a blitz look or protection that he sees so fast in the moment. That is such a rare quality for anybody to have. I mean, we're coaching staff. We watch the tape. We study as much as anybody he sees at a different level. And I think that's quarterbacks that have that ability to see the protection that quick, get to a better answer from a route standpoint, or just know how to protect themselves with the IDs or get the ball of their hands hot sites. He's really, as a guy who's been around quarterbacks my whole life, he is at the very, very top of his ability to process all that.
Unknown: What do you think he is now?
Taylor: I think, I think, oh, this stage in camp. I've been pleased with what I've seen. You know, I think he can probably give you the more innate detail of where he needs improved. But to my eye, he's, he's getting through his progressions. He's still with a great accuracy. He's got a good feel in the pocket. So I'm, I'm pleased with the progression that he's on right now in training camp.
Unknown: Going back to the recognition, has he always been like that or has that sharpened?
Taylor: No, I think, well, I think it sharpens with the experience you get in that league. So now he's seen, I remember Randy got us in 2020 on a blitz that really didn't seem to make sense at the time. It was the first time he'd seen that. And so like when he'd seen something like that, I didn't know a team would ever do that. You know, it didn't seem sound, but it worked. And so things like that, he stores away like, okay, someone's going to do that to me and follows the way. So I think over, over a seven year period, he's filed all those things away. For now, he's, he knows how people are going to try to attack him and what the answers are. And I think that's where he's, that's where anybody grows just with experience and, and his job, your job. I think that's, that's pretty natural.
Unknown: Who's that against?
Taylor: Colts. COVID game up in 2020.
Unknown: Let's get through today. And I'm some of those injury guys. I, in my mind, I know what the plan is, but let's get through practice today.
Unknown: Rest was saying back in Chicago that you throw punt stand in the front yard and then and then you tackle him right as he caught it. Was that?
Taylor: Yeah, that little brothers. That's part return. That game was called punt return. And yeah, it's, I throw the ball up and tackle him. We played interception. I think my dad, who's in the back of the room would play quarterback and press and I would rotate between corner and receiver. That game was just called interception. So yeah, it's, yeah, we had, we had a lot of good games in the front yard. Mind you, press was five years younger than me. So I'm going to go ahead and assume that he never got me on the ground.
Unknown: Did you get a chance to see your brother last night?
Taylor: I saw my brother just now. I saw his family, his wife, Brooklyn, four kids, sister-in-law, her two kids. So we had, we had a couple of kids over at the house last night. I snuck out in the backyard. But, but good crew. My, my mom, sisters are here. Dad's in the back. So it's a fun family experience for us for these next three days. And it's good. I've mentioned this before, but just to do it in a practice setting and not have, you know, the December games were typically facing him is, is I think fun for all of us. For press nights, it's more of the same. It's, we've done this a million times. I think for our family, it's a lot of fun to get out here and enjoy it.
Unknown: Thank you.
