The Cincinnati Bengals come into 2026 with legitimate Super Bowl expectations — and a lot of pressure on head coach Zac Taylor to avoid a sluggish start.

FOX Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano ranked Cincinnati No. 8 in his preseason NFL power rankings released Sept. 8. Vacchiano acknowledged the upside of a healthy Joe Burrow, an elite collection of skill players and an improved defense.

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But he also surfaced a striking alternative for how the season could unfold.

“Or they could start slow again, and Zac Taylor could be gone by mid-October,” Vacchiano wrote. “It’s a coin flip.”

The warning comes after Cincinnati went 6-11 in 2025 and missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season. NFL.com previously included the Bengals among the teams under the most pressure entering 2026, writing that Taylor “absolutely will feel pressure to win — or else.”

That makes Cincinnati’s opening stretch especially important. The Bengals host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1 before road games against the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers. They then face the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins before their Week 6 bye.

Taylor has survived previous slow starts, but the consequences are higher after three straight postseason misses.

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With Burrow ready to go and Cincinnati having contender expectations, there may be less patience if September starts to unravel.

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ Zac Taylor gets ‘gone by mid-October’ warning