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The Bengals are having a disappointing season after five consecutive ones capped by playoff berths. With so much inconsistency and underachievement, many are looking to the coaching staff as the root of the issues—particularly Marvin Lewis.
After all the fan chatter about a potential coaching change, we decided to address the topic on this week’s Orange and Black Insider. While Scott Schultze, Connor Howe and I shared some of the same viewpoints on Lewis and his potential departure, we also found ourselves disagreeing on some issues.
Personally, I’m still obsessing over Lewis’ awful record in critical games—AKA those in primetime. In primetime and playoff games as the Bengals’ head coach, Lewis currently has a 6-24 record, good for a 25% winning percentage. He’s also now 5-8-1 off of bye weeks, following the Monday night loss to the Giants.
Scott’s frustration with Lewis seemed to stem from a different tendency. Whether it was six offseasons ago during the rebuild, or even today, Lewis shows a penchant for preferring veterans who might be lesser talented than some younger players behind them on the depth chart. He also noted that recent Draft classes haven’t yielded as many results as initially expected because of this Lewis trait.
Connor is a little easier on Lewis, mostly because of the fear of losing momentum that comes with a head coaching change. Scheme, team vision and the rolling of the dice on a potentially unknown commodity could cause further backsliding than even the 3-5-1 start we’ve seen this year. Is it a risk fans should be willing to take with the Brown family at the helm of the Bengals franchise?
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What are your thoughts on Lewis’ time in Cincinnati? Is it time for the Bengals to move on from the second longest tenured coach in the NFL?