Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow and Coach Zac Taylor Are One Step From History

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has a chance to do something this season that only one other NFL quarterback has accomplished in the Super Bowl era. At the same time, Zac Taylor can join a club of head coaches that counts just six among its members. The feat to join the elite? Get back to the AFC Championship Game for a third consecutive season.

It wasn’t that long ago when the ongoing question facing the Bengals each year was whether they could win just one playoff game to end what would stretch into a 30-season drought. But in the 550 days since Cincinnati snapped that skid with a Wild Card win against the Raiders, the postseason question front and center in the minds of many fans is what bar Taylor and his players will show up at to present game balls.

Obviously, no one is rubber-stamping another Bengals berth in the AFC Championship Game. But after making it there in back-to-back seasons and having 19 of 22 starters back for another run, the thought of it happening again is trending closer to probability than simply a possibility.

Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, Zac Taylor Chase History

Party of 1

If Burrow, the co-favorite to win NFL MVP, can get the Bengals back to the AFC Championship Game this season, he would become the 14th quarterback in the Super Bowl era to guide his team to three consecutive conference title games. But he would be just the second one to start three conference title games in his first four seasons in the league, joining the man he faced in each of the previous two, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes’ accomplishment could almost be marked with an asterisk, as his playing time in Year 1 consisted of throwing 35 passes in the 2017 season finale after the Chiefs had already locked in their playoff seed. Technically, he’s led Kansas City to the AFC Championship Game in all five seasons as a starter.

Unlike Mahomes, Burrow started as a rookie but didn’t finish the season, suffering a torn ACL in his 10th start. But like Mahomes, Burrow took his team to the AFC title game in his first full season as a starter. And unlike Mahomes, he was successful in getting the Bengals to the Super Bowl, beating Mahomes and the Chiefs in the process.

So what does Burrow need to improve on to increase his odds of reaching another AFC title game this season and match Mahomes as the only QB to do it three times in four years? Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said earlier this offseason that it’s a tough question to answer.

“When you’re playing as well as he’s played, it’s hard to pinpoint,” Callahan said. “His improvements are going to be minuscule. They’re gonna be things that nobody sees. They’re gonna be details of the position that are not as exciting to talk about necessarily. There’s always room to improve. There’s always more mastery of a system. There’s always more looks he’s seen, more answers in his back pocket.

“I think he’s playing football as a quarterback at about a high of a level as you can play it,” Callahan continued. “So I wouldn’t say there’s going to be any sweeping changes to what he can get better at. He’s always gonna continue to work on the finer points of his game and the mental part of it. I don’t have anything glaring at this point that he’s got to improve on. I think he’s played really damn good football.”

3 Title Games in a Row

When you take the qualifier of the first four years of a career out of the equation, the list of quarterbacks to reach three consecutive conference championship games naturally expands, with Mahomes becoming the 13th player to accomplish it in 2020, before adding a fourth straight one in 2021 and a fifth last season.

Of the 13 to do it, eight are in the Hall of Fame, and another two — Mahomes and Tom Brady — are locks to join them once eligible. Donovan McNabb, Daryle Lamonica, and Danny White are the outliers on the list.

3 Title Games Total

When we eliminate the “consecutive” variable, the list grows even more, but maybe not as much as some may think. Of all those who have played quarterback since 1966, only 23 have reached three conference championship games at any point in their career. Thirteen of the 23 are in the Hall of Fame, while another five are expected to be (Mahomes, Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, and Aaron Rodgers).

If Burrow is to join the list this year — or any year in the future — there will be only 16 quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era who can count more title game appearances than he can, as seven on the list finished their careers with exactly three.

Zac Taylor’s Spot Among the Pantheon of Great Coaches

While Burrow is entering his fourth season, Taylor is entering his fifth. And while the list of coaches to reach three title games in their first five seasons is longer than that of the quarterbacks to go three times in four years, it’s still a small collection when you consider there have been 438 head coaches in the NFL since 1966.

Only six of them have led their teams to a conference championship game three times in their first five seasons. Ironically, only one is in the Hall of Fame. However, Andy Reid is a lock for induction, and John Harbaugh doesn’t have that far to go to enter the conversation.
George Seifert, who is the only coach to go to four conference championship games in his first five seasons, is a semifinalist for the Class of 2024.

Coaching 3 Straight Title Games

Only 10 head coaches have led their teams to three consecutive conference title games. Two of them — Reid and Tom Landry — did it multiple times, raising the occurrences of it happening to 12.

Exactly half of those streaks stopped at three, which means if Taylor and the Bengals are to get back there this season, there will be only five coaches in the Super Bowl era with longer conference title game streaks than Taylor.

All told, there are 28 coaches who have made it to at least three conference championship games at any point in their careers. Eleven of them are in the Hall of Fame, and several more, including Belichick, Reid, Mike Tomlin, Sean Payton, and John Harbaugh, range from being locks to having a puncher’s chance of being elected.

Prior to the draft, Taylor talked about the culture he’s built and the keys to the success that has him on the verge of joining some of the game’s greats.

“Be consistent with what you believe in and your messaging,” Taylor said. “Don’t be afraid to evolve at the same time. There’s a lot of things that I came in and believed because maybe I’d done in L.A. or other places that we had to evolve to fit with what the Cincinnati Bengals did.

“And the biggest thing for us was just being transparent and our communication of why we’re doing things, what our intent is, why we’re changing maybe things that we’ve done over several weeks or months. And I think our players have believed in that process, and it’s helped us get to where we are today.”

No one is suggesting commissioning a sculpture to start on the busts for Taylor and Burrow. Still, a third consecutive trip to the AFC title game this season would put them among elite company and keep them on course toward NFL aristocracy.