Taylor says Burrow is built for championships

The Cincinnati Bengals are back in the Super Bowl after 33 years and head coach Zac Taylor is clear on what the key piece was to getting there.

Taylor is enjoying his first winning season after three years at the helm, a stretch that included finishing with a 2-14 record in 2019 and the first overall draft pick with which he drafted quarterback Joe Burrow.

“He’s built for this stage,” Taylor said of Burrow during Monday’s virtual press conference. “He’s played for state championships, he’s played for the national championship, now he’s playing for the Super Bowl. I think this has been his expectation all along, he’s not surprised. He’s risen to the occasion and we’re happy to have him.”

Burrow had a 2-7-1 record as a rookie before a devastating knee injury sidelined him for the rest of the season and in 2010 he led the Bengals to a 10-6 mark, the AFC North title and their first Super Bowl appearance since the 1988 season.

“Joe has always had a lot of confidence, he earns that confidence, he sets the standard for the team,” Taylor said. “He’s like everybody else, he learns. He learns quickly from experience and uses it to his advantage.

“When you believe your quarterback can take you the distance, it allows everyone to play that 1 percent better.”

This is the third Super Bowl appearance for the Bengals, in the previous two they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the XVI and XXIII editions, they also won their first postseason game since the 1990 season and for the first time in history they knew victory as visitors in a playoff game.

However, the recent accomplishments are not foremost on Cincinnati’s mind.

“We never talked about the postseason drought,” Burrow indicated. “We have a really young team that doesn’t even recognize the historical significance of what we’re doing.”