Cincinnati Bengals: Will Marvin Lewis Still Be Head Coach After 2017?
By Kenn Korb
After a disappointing 2016 for the Cincinnati Bengals and potentially more struggles to come, what’s the outlook for Marvin Lewis?
Marvin Lewis has been the head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals since the 2003 season. In that time, he’s taken a team which had become widely known as “The Bungles” and turned them into a group which has been one of the more stable franchises in the league in his overall tenure. In the years prior to Lewis taking over the team, this was a franchise unable to even find mediocrity amidst a long series of poor drafts and cheapskate moves by ownership.
Following a Super Bowl loss to the San Francisco 49ers after the 1990 season, the team went on to have a terrible 55-137 record from 1991-2002. Of those 12 years, none ended with a winning record, nine ended with the team having double-digit losses, and seven of those nine years saw them go no better than 4-12.
Not helping matters was owner Mike Brown, who quickly moved on from Steve Wyche after one bad year (prior to 1991, the team went 66-53 under Wyche, including two Super Bowl appearances), made terrible draft moves (including picking Ki-Jana Carter and Akili Smith), and both pissing off and alienating his players routinely due to his decisions from the top.
With the addition of Lewis the franchise finally found stability. Under Lewis, the team has gone 118-103-2 in 14 seasons, with seven playoff appearances and four AFC North division crowns.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
Beyond just the record itself though, he has brought other stabilizing factors to the team in his tenure. Though there were many issues with players having run-ins with the law earlier in his tenure, this franchise has not only continued to feel comfortable taking chances on character risks, but their improvement at handling players who come with inherent off-field red flags and character concerns has made them take a prime destination for talented guys with issues to have a chance at success. That’s a huge credit to Lewis’ abilities as a leader.
Still, despite the stability he has brought, there are significant reasons that could lead to a changing of the guard at his spot in the near future.
Despite the positives he has brought to the team, his group has never experienced the sort of postseason success which tends to keep coaches employed. He may have made the playoffs in half of his seasons to this point, but none of those groups has ever won a single game there. Of course, a few of those have mitigating circumstances (the 2005 group immediately lost Carson Palmer to a torn ACL, A.J. Green and Marvin Jones missed the 2014 contest), but too often this has been a group which collapses when the games matter most.
Even when there are factors which can’t be blamed on coaching, we’ve seen endless examples of head coaches having to suffer the brunt of the blame and receiving a pink slip because of it. Lewis lucked out to this point at least in part due to Brown’s reluctance to part ways early with his coaches even when they are doing terribly (Dave Shula went 19-52 in over four years, Bruce Coslet went 21-39 in about four total seasons, and Dick LeBeau went 12-33 in over two years of games), but even the most patient/change-averse guys have a limit, and another losing effort this year could put Lewis at risk.
Though Brown doesn’t like to move on early from agreed-upon contracts (presumably because the accusations of him being cheap have some validity to them), he wouldn’t have that factor to worry about with Lewis right now. Lewis is on the last year of a contract extension as of this moment, and has already been sort of playing out the string; the past few offseasons have seen him get extensions, but those have been just one-year additions.
This year is the third-straight time he’s faced that circumstance, but to this point it is the first where he doesn’t have an extension set for the following year. That could still change (other extensions have come around this time in April), but until that is reported it cannot just be assumed he’ll return after this year.
Cincinnati Bengals
Another factor to consider: Who knows how long Lewis wants to keep coaching. There have been rumors for years of him possibly calling it quits. In 2015, he himself mentioned how he’d retire if the Bengals won the Super Bowl (per CBS Sports). We saw his possible retirement mentioned last season as well (though it was later refuted) and it has been a subject of intrigue in recent seasons as the Bengals have struggled to make a deep run in the playoffs and he’s had to play out short extensions. He also apparently tried to work out a two-year succession plan with Brown to have Hue Jackson take over as head coach before the latter left for the head job in Cleveland, but Brown wouldn’t agree to it.
That all points to a guy who seems close to being finished. And while the most recent news on the matter does seem to point to Lewis wanting to go on coaching beyond 2017 (per Pro Football Talk), Brown could decide it is in his best interest to let him actually play out the string this time.
2016 was a drastic step back after five straight years of playoff runs, and though they do have a slew of upcoming draft picks (11 to be exact) and have made some decent free agent moves (the cheap addition of linebacker Kevin Minter is great for that group, and keeping Dre Kirkpatrick let them hold onto a starter at corner) which could help them return to their recent successful ways, there are inherent problems with where the organization stands today which stand as major roadblocks.
This is a team that has bled homegrown talent in recent years, is reluctant to trust young players (the backbone of their roster) in important roles, doesn’t like spending money on outside free agents and quick fixes, and holds onto players well past their usefulness.
Not all of that is on Lewis (Brown is still the de facto GM even after ceding some decision-making power to Lewis over the years, so his frugal nature undoubtedly plays a role in personnel choices). But he has enough control and influence to make a significant difference in most of those areas. The fact that he hasn’t is a blemish on his resume.
History shows us that the most likely outcome in this situation will be another extension at some point for Lewis. However, there are enough factors here to believe that it isn’t as much of a certain outcome as we’ve seen to this point.
Next: 2017 NFL Power Rankings: Pre-Draft Assessment
Should Cincinnati struggle again in 2017 (which I believe is a distinct possibility), or should Lewis actually decide he’s really ready to hang it up, we may be seeing a whole new regime quite soon in Cincinnati.