The Zac Taylor era is finally official in Cincinnati.
Taylor was named the 10th head coach in franchise history on Monday. Here are five facts about Taylor.
1. Football is family - Taylor comes from a football family and he married into a football family. His dad Sherwood Taylor played football for Barry Switzer at Oklahoma in the 1970s and coached briefly for the Sooners and Kansas State Wildcats in the early 80s. His brother Press Taylor played quarterback at Marshall University and serves as the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. His father-in-law is Mike Sherman who coached the Green Bay Packers from 2000-05 and gave Taylor his coaching career start at Texas A&M.
2. Pro Bowl Goff - Taylor moved to quarterbacks coach this season with the Los Angeles Rams and oversaw third-year signal-caller Jared Goff finish eighth in the league in QB rating (101.1) and earn his second Pro Bowl bid. Along those lines Zac and Press were fortunate to coach star quarterbacks Goff and Carson Wentz who were the first two selections in the 2016 Draft.
3. Marvelous In Miami - During his time with the Miami Dolphins, Taylor was instrumental in the development of signal caller Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill threw for 3,000 or more yards in each of his first four seasons. Tannehill's 15,460 passing yards in his first four seasons are the third-most among all quarterbacks in NFL history in their first three seasons according to Pro-Football-Reference.com, trailing Peyton Manning (1998-2001/16,418) and Dan Marino (1983- 86/16,177). Besides coaching quarterbacks in Miami from 2012-15, in the final five weeks of the '15 season, Taylor served as the Dolphins' interim offensive coordinator.
4. Big In The Big 12 - Taylor completed a two-year career at Nebraska, setting nearly every Huskers passing record. He threw for 5,850 yards and 45 touchdowns in his career. In 2017, Taylor was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame. The 2006 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, Taylor passed for more than 3,100 yards as a senior, leading the Cornhuskers to a 9-3 record, an appearance in the Big 12 Championship Game and a matchup against the Auburn Tigers in the Cotton Bowl. He earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies from Nebraska in 2006.
5. Youth is served – Although Taylor is known as a young coach, he still won't be the youngest in Bengals history. The youngest Bengals head coach in franchise history will still be Dave Shula, who was 32 when the franchise hired him in 1992. Taylor will turn 36 in May.
