Cincinnati recently signed head coach Marvin Lewis to a two-year contract extension, but was it the right move for the franchise moving forward?
For the last month or so of the 2017 season, it seemed all but assured that longtime Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis would be headed out the door.
Turns out all those rumors were moot. Rather than having his time with the Bengals come to a close, Lewis has instead been given a two-year extension to stay as the head coach for Cincinnati through the 2019 season. So, what happened?
The short answer: Bengals owner Mike Brown stuck to his usual script.
Okay, Now What’s The Long Answer?
Since he took over ownership of the team in 1991, Brown has held the infamous distinction of being three things: cheap, loyal, and slow to make changes. Those have played out heavily in getting the team to where they were today.
Despite a noted lack of success over the majority of his ownership (especially in the 1990s), Brown has had only five head coaches under his employ. After quickly cutting the cord on Sam Wyche (fired in December of 1991 — Brown’s first year as owner), he ended up spending the next 11 seasons gathering a pitiful 52-124 combined record under Dave Shula (19-52; 1992-96), Bruce Coslet (21-39; 1996-2000) and Dick LeBeau (12-33; 2000-02).
Hiring Lewis changed things dramatically in terms of on-field success, but it didn’t exactly change the thought process for Brown; if anything, it reinforced it. Lewis has easily brought about the most success of any coach under Brown; not only has he given the team taken this team to the playoffs on multiple occasions (a feat accomplished exactly zero times under Brown prior to his hiring), but he’s given them a unique and a resilient culture.
Even with multiple stretches of poor records in his tenure and spending the past few years only being granted one-year extensions (an unusual course of action relative to how contracts tend to work with coaches), Lewis’ job never felt like less than a formality until late this season.
It may have taken a bit longer to get a defined answer on Lewis’ future than we’re used to with most of the decisions in the sporting world, but with Brown’s history we shouldn’t have expected anything less than him going at his own pace to come to his conclusion. We also shouldn’t be surprised what that decision ended up being, either.
Was Keeping Lewis The Right Decision?
It depends what you’re looking for at this point in Cincinnati’s history. If you’re notoriously averse to change (much like Brown), why go away from the only guy who has overseen any amount of success during your time owning the team? In those 11 seasons as owner before hiring Lewis, Cincinnati had a losing record in 10 of them; in it, they went 8-8.
Lewis changed things immediately with his hiring. He didn’t fall below 8-8 in any of his first four seasons, and prior to this season’s 7-9 finish his teams had won as many AFC North crowns as they had suffered losing seasons. Going further, he’s accounted for exactly half (7-of-14) of the playoff berths in the franchise’s history.
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Beyond his record itself (125-112-3), Lewis has been an immeasurably stable force for the culture in Cincinnati. Without Lewis, the ability of the team to take chances on so many individuals with red flags, character issues, and off-field problems over the years would have been virtually impossible to accomplish while also being successful. His talent with connecting with players and acting as a positive influence and leader for them cannot be denied and shouldn’t be lightly regarded.
Just go down the list, and you see so many players who wouldn’t be given the time of day elsewhere but could try to grow and/or salvage their careers in Cincinnati. To name a few: Adam Jones, Vontaze Burfict, Joe Mixon, Cedric Benson, Chris Henry. Not all of them have worked out (Henry’s road — which included numerous arrests, cuts, and a posthumous diagnosis of CTE — is particularly sad), but many of these guys have managed to find the belief, trust, and stability that wouldn’t have been afforded to them elsewhere; with it, the majority have managed to be productive players and better all-around people.
The previous good doesn’t necessarily mean a change wouldn’t have been the right decision for the franchise moving forward, however.
Though the team fought surprisingly hard to win their final two games, the team definitely looked as if it had given up in the previous two weeks in response to another collapse to the Steelers that all but ended their 2017 playoff hopes. They already knew by then that Lewis’ contract was set to expire, and their play would likely have an impact on him staying around. Still, they came with zero energy against the Bears and Vikings and were blown off the field. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for keeping a coach, right?
Here’s another: the Bengals’ success against other quality teams hasn’t exactly been a hallmark of Lewis’ tenure. Against .500 or better teams, Lewis has a 40-72-1 record in Cincinnati; that starkly contrasts with his record against sub-.500 clubs (72-27-2).
No opponent embodies this more than Cincinnati’s bitter rivals from Pittsburgh; against the Steelers, Lewis’ teams are an abysmal 8-24 — including 0-2 in the playoffs. Possibly even worse: not only do his teams lose to the Steelers three times as often as they win, but the losses are especially brutal and often tend to come in the form of excruciating collapses. There’s only so much of that sort of defeat players/fans/etc can take before they lose faith in what’s happening. From there, it doesn’t take much to push everyone to losing interest and tuning out.
What’s The Verdict?
Despite the valid concerns, sticking with Lewis is ultimately the best decision for the organization. He is the driving force behind taking what had been an embarrassing laughingstock of a franchise for over a decade and has turned it into a stable, usually-competitive outfit. They have a culture that can successfully incorporate troubled-but-talented individuals into having positive impacts while mitigating and/or negating the factors which made them questionable decisions in the first place. They’ve even managed to be a consistent playoff threat when they get the right breaks — and a high-quality regular season team when they have the right talent in place.
Here’s another factor to consider: If the thought process of Brown is going to evolve on certain important issues, who has a better shot than Lewis of doing so? The frugal, change-averse Brown already wouldn’t be too enthused about hiring someone new; what makes you think he’d be open to also giving a person he has yet to form a relationship of any level with more power and influence than a guy he’s been working with for 15 years?
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They wouldn’t, plain and simple, and it wasn’t a sure thing that even Lewis could make Brown budge on his usual thought process. Based on the reporting on his new deal though, it seems some level of breakthrough was made: apparently, things such as control over staff decisions and usage of free agency were part of Lewis’ discussion with Brown that led to his extension. Lewis agreeing to return points to positive steps being made to do what is necessary for the Bengals to return to their 2011-15 playoff-caliber form.
Like most of his tenure with Cincinnati, Lewis’ return isn’t exactly an exciting affair. The splashy moves often aren’t the right moves however, and this extension should bear out another example of the positives which can come with continuity.