Zac Taylor: 'Joe is very much involved' in quarterbacks coach pick

When Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor walked into the Cincinnati Friars Club gym in St. Bernard for the first time, he wasn't there as a coach but as the father of a young basketball player.

Taylor kept a low profile but admired the program Friars Club president Annie Timmons had built for roughly 1,000 local children through the Franciscan ministry. There's basketball, volleyball and baseball for boys and girls with an emphasis on scholarship and good behavior mixed in.

So, when Timmons asked Taylor to headline the Friars Club annual dinner on March 1 as coach of the year, it was an easy "yes" for Taylor.

Timmons and Taylor joined The Enquirer's "That's So Cincinnati" podcast to talk about the event and Taylor talked about how the off-season is going.

"I feel like our job as adults is to give kids an opportunity to be OK," Timmons said. "We do that by how we act, react, interact with them. That's why (Taylor) is our coach of the year because he also is a super great role model."

What Taylor had to say:

Burrow helping with pick for quarterbacks coach

"Joe is very much involved. You know, I think the quarterback, in a lot of ways, is an extension of the coaching staff. They have to think very similar to how you think. And a player that puts in the work that Joe Burrow puts in, I respect his opinion. Sometimes he can see things, from a better perspective than us detached coaches that are on the playing field can see it from. So oftentimes I come to him for his opinions on a couple of players that maybe he knows from around the league, maybe draft assessments."

Watching the playoffs on TV

"It's hard to wrap your head around. You know, when you're watching these games on TV, it's frustrating because we play all these teams. We've beaten some of these teams, some of them we didn't. So it's hard to watch these big moments that we're not a part of, that we're used to being a part of. In some ways. You have to find the silver lining. Our season didn't go the way we wanted. We weren't in the playoffs. That fueled us a little bit as we watch these other teams and hear all the conversations. I'm walking through the airport during the divisional game and the security guys announcing the score of the Chiefs/Bills game. And I'm thinking, 'We should be in that and that should be me on the field and some guy announcing at an airport what the Bengals are doing right now.'"

Favorite moment from the epic 2021 season

"For me, it was when we beat Kansas City here to win the division. We won conference championships, we went to the Super Bowl. Those are great moments. But the first one that set all that in motion was beating a top team that had just won a Super Bowl and winning the division in front of our fans. For a lot of us players and coaches, that was the moment we had been working for."

Miss last week's episode? No problem. Listen here. Follow Cincinnati.com editor Beryl Love on X @beryllove and City Hall reporter Sharon Coolidge @SharonCoolidge.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Zac Taylor on coach hires, Burrow and why he supports Friars Club