Despite looking like he spent most of the 2025 season coaching his last game, former Nebraska quarterback and current Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor still has his job. In fact, he's the longest tenured coach in the entirety of the AFC. Recently leaked NFLPA report cards illustrate why.
The report cards were leaked because the NFL's owners managed to get a ruling that banned the Players' Union from releasing them publicly. So the NFLPA responded by still working on the report cards and just leaking them to everyone in the media, getting the same result as a public release.
Taylor, who is entering his 8th year with the Bengals, is quite popular with the players. In fact, the former Nebraska football star is one of the more popular head coaches in the league. The leaked report card shows that Bengals players gave their head coach an A- grade.
Here are the Bengals NFLPA grades
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) February 26, 2026
Big upgrades for the Bengals locker room from the previous years.
Still lacking in nutrition and food.
Players actually love their coaches, it seems.
Ownership? Not so much. pic.twitter.com/T4y83QTwRJ
Nebraska football alum Zac Taylor earns A‑ grade in leaked NFLPA report cards
Compare that to General Manager Duke Tobin's C and ownership's D+. It's clear who the people inside the locker room blame for the team's 6-11 record this season after back-to-back 9-8 records in 2023 and 2024.
Ownership itself doesn't really blame the former Nebraska signal caller for the struggles, especially this past season, considering that star quarterback Joe Burrow was injured for the majority of the campaign.
It's worth noting that the locker room also has quite a bit of love for Taylor's staff. The offensive coordinator also got an A-, while the defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator both got a B+. Position coaches got a B-, and the strength and conditioning staff all earned good grades as well.
Where Cincinnati players graded the Bengals the worst is all about owner Mike Brown and his family. Treatment of family (ironically) got an F- (the worst grade possible) while food and dietitian got Fs.
This is a good news, bad news situation for Taylor. The former Nebraska coach is operating on borrowed time if the team doesn't make big strides in 2026. That he got quite a bit of love from players while ownership got a ton of hate only sets him up as more of a scapegoat among the fanbase.