All eyes will be on the Cincinnati Bengals at the start of the 2025 NFL season. Over the years, the Bengals have been slow starters, which has cost them a playoff berth last season. As a result, former NFL head coach Eric Mangini is calling out Cincinnati to change the narrative.
If the Bengals are frustrated over the label they have earned of being slow starters and having many question marks to consider them a Super Bowl contender, Mangini said on “First Things First” that the team is to blame for not fixing this issue and letting it linger.
“I don’t like the idea that you’re going to disregard the narrative,” Mangini said. “If you don’t like the narrative, then change the narrative. But the problem is, they haven’t changed the narrative, and we talk about it every year. Every year, at the end of the year, it becomes the thing that’s the reason that they didn’t go to the playoffs.
“Even when you looked at right at the start of the offseason, they were talking about the fact that they have to fix this slow start problem. They were talking about it in February, and at least they’re trying to address it with playing guys in the preseason, doing some different things. They talked about changing things in OTAs, changing some things in training camp, which, to me, I don’t know quite how we’ve gotten to this point.”
“If you don’t like the narrative, then change the narrative but the problem is they haven’t changed the narrative.”
Coach Mangini on the Bengals slow starts: pic.twitter.com/OvBWcXcIkj
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) August 12, 2025
Furthermore, Mangini went after head coach Zac Taylor for not addressing the issue as soon as the show spotlighted Taylor’s 1-11 record in Weeks 1 and 2 through his six seasons in Cincinnati.
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“He’s 1-11 through six years,” Mangini added. “And you think at Year 2, you’re like, ‘Okay, we’re going to have to do something a little bit differently than we did before.’ Year 4, it’s like, ‘We might want to address this,’ and now here we are.
“People may be frustrated with what’s being said, but it’s what’s keeping you from the opportunity with a franchise quarterback and all the money that’s been put into these offensive players to compete for something that Cincinnati. This window is not going to last forever.”
The 2025 NFL season feels like a make-or-break year for Taylor because, as Mangini said, the Bengals cannot afford to waste the Joe Burrow window, and if a coaching change is needed, then it must get done.
