It is difficult to say that Marvin Lewis and the Cincinnati Bengals left on moderately poor terms. The Head Coach brought the Bengals from being a perennial laughing stock in the NFL to legitimate playoff contenders. The biggest problem for Lewis in Cincinnati however was that he was unable to win a single playoff game in his tenure, going 0-10 after finishing the regular season with some embarrassing losses mixed in there as well.
Obviously the biggest flaw of Lewis was how he failed to keep his team up-to-date as his reliance on quarterback Andy Dalton ultimately doomed the team to the NFL cellar in 2018. The aging defense couldn’t stop anyone and Andy Dalton simply wasn’t as effective when his star offensive lineman left in 2016 including left tackle Andrew Whitworth to the Rams, right guard Kevin Zeitler to the Giants and right tackle Andre Smith to the Vikings all in one season.
Looking back on his tenure in Cincinnati, I think fairly fondly of Lewis as he was about as consistent of a coach as could be. He certainly had developed a winning formula to get Cincinnati into the playoffs and keep them from being what they had been much of the ten years before he arrived. Marvin Lewis ultimately had a winning record as a Cincinnati Coach starting with the team in 2003 and closing out the 2018 season. For as experienced and successful coach as he was, he surprising hasn’t looked for another job within the NFL… until now.
Las Vegas Raiders looking at Head Coaching Candidate from Bengals
On Saturday, Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce announced the list of candidates that he had met with to be the next Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. It is safe to say there were certainly some familiar names on the list:
𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧: #Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce has had former head coaches Tom Coughling, Adam Gase and Marvin Lewis sitting in on his meetings this week, per @TomPelissero
Read More Here: https://t.co/1AVjOioCoT pic.twitter.com/YfqAVqM6mv
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) December 10, 2023
While all of these candidates appear to be experienced coaches in the National Football League, Pierce has a history with Lewis as the two coached together recently at Arizona State. On top of that, they were described as co-defensive coordinators for the Sun Devils and would certainly be happy working together once again.
On a personnel note, Lewis was always revered as an elite defensive coach as he helped to bring to build the Ravens defense of the early 2000s that is widely accepted as the greatest defense of all time. Lewis would be an exceptional pick to help build this Raiders defense back out of mediocrity after they failed to keep star players and have missed on high draft picks consistently for the past several years.
Another skill Marvin Lewis established during his time in Cincinnati was to bring in talent at the offensive coordinator position. Many of Lewis’ assistant head coaches would go on to be Head Coaches in the NFL themselves including brother of a disgraced former Raiders Coach Jay Gruden. The most likely option for an offensive coordinator in Las Vegas however would be Lewis’ long time confidant Hue Jackson, who managed well as offensive coordinator in Cincinnati.
Lewis still holds the tools to be an exceptional head coach and the Raiders would be a better off organization thanks to the exceptional professionalism he would bring to the table.
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