Super Bowl 2022: Sean McVay, Zac Taylor to make history as Super Bowl’s youngest coaching matchup

A year ago, the Super Bowl included the oldest coaching matchup in the game’s history with Bruce Arians facing Andy Reid (both were 68 at the time). This year’s Super Bowl will feature the youngest coaching matchup in Super Bowl history. It will also be the first time that both Super Bowl coaches are under 40 years of age. 

In his third season in Cincinnati, 38-year-old Zac Taylor has led the Bengals to the franchise’s third trip to the Super Bowl. In Super Bowl LVI, Taylor will face his former boss, Rams coach Sean McVay, who at age 36 has a chance to surpass Steelers coach Mike Tomlin as the youngest coach to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

McVay already holds the title as the youngest head coach in Super Bowl history. At age 33, McVay led the Rams to Super Bowl LIII, where Los Angeles fell to Bill Belichick’s Patriots in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl of all-time. McVay’s quarterbacks coach that season was Taylor, who served as the Rams’ assistant receivers coach during McVay’s first season with the Rams. 

“I love Zac Taylor, I’m so happy for him,” McVay said on the eve of championship weekend, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I think that team plays with a swagger and confidence similar to the way Zac carries himself. He’s so steady, he’s always so neutral. You look at the way (Joe) Burrow plays, he never flinches, he’s always confident in his ability to respond and I think they thrive off that, they’ve got great players and I’m so happy for Zac.”

Taylor had equal praise for McVay a day after both coaches led their teams to conference titles. Taylor joked that if you had a cup of coffee with McVay, you were going to become a head coach. 

“Working for Sean was the best two years of my life,” Taylor said, via Marisa Contipelli of the Bengals’ team website. “It was fun, you loved coming into the building.”

Both coaches can make history in Super Bowl LVI. Along with potentially being the youngest coach to win the Super Bowl, McVay would become the second coach in Rams history (the other being Dick Vermeil) to lead the franchise to a Super Bowl title. He would also join former Raiders coach Tom Flores as the only coaches to lead a Los Angeles-based team to a Super Bowl title. Taylor would become the first Bengals coach to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy if the Bengals can upset the Rams, who have opened as a four-time favorite, via Caesars Sportsbook.