4 head coach candidates for Bengals to consider for 2018

The Bengals’ season has gotten off to a rough start and there seem to be some deep seeded issues with this team. It would be very surprising to see them make much of a playoff push. The team has a lot of talent and despite some clear holes they should be better than they are. It seems it is time for the Bengals to go through a bit of a soft reset and that starts with a new coach. The head coach position is extremely important to any team so if the Bengals can get this right, they could be setting themselves up for success for years to come.

Here are four options for the Bengals to consider to replace Marvin Lewis after the 2017 NFL season is over.

1. Browns head coach Hue Jackson

There were rumors after Jackson departed for Cleveland that Mike Brown had offered for him to be head coach in waiting, while Lewis finished off his career before retiring. He ended up leaving for Cleveland regardless, so at the time it didn’t seem like it mattered. Now with Cleveland having only won one game under Jackson in one and a half seasons, things look a little different. There seems to be a rift in Cleveland and the front office, the coaching staff or both could be gone at the end of the year. If that happens, it wouldn’t be completely surprising—despite his failure in Cleveland—to see Jackson back in stripes. There is an argument to be made for it as Dalton had his best season in the NFL with Jackson as offensive coordinator.

2. Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther

Some trends can be found within the Bengals’ organization when it comes to making moves. The Bengals love promoting from within. It wouldn’t be surprising for that to be the case with the Bengals’ next head coach. Current defensive coordinator Paul Guenther seems to be the obvious candidate, if the Bengals are to hire from within, as he has been the defensive coordinator since 2014 and with the team since 2005. There has also been talk of him becoming a head coach candidate for other teams for the past couple of years and he’s gone on interviews in that span. However, this move would be fairly uninspiring and would fall in line with sticking to the status quo.

3. Washington Huskies head coach Chris Petersen

Something some teams do when they want to revitalize their organization with a breath of fresh air is hire one of the hot names in college football. One of the top coaches in college football is Chris Petersen, the current head coach at University of Washington. Petersen was the head coach at Boise State and turned the program into a success before taking the job at Washington. He also quickly turned around that program, making an appearance in the College Football Playoff last year after just taking the job in 2014. Petersen seems to be a good influence on the programs he coaches and he gets the best out of the talent he has. He coached Bengals safety George Iloka at Boise State and wide receiver John Ross at Washington.

4. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels

The Bengals could go after someone to specifically try and fix the offense. If this is their line of thinking, McDaniels would certainly be one of the top candidates. McDaniels failed in Denver as their head coach, but has since engineered a comeback as a head coaching candidate by getting even better performances out of Brady. Watching Bill O’Brien coach up Deshaun Watson and help him destroy the league (with a terrible offensive line) makes the idea of a coach who can implement the Bill Belichick style offense highly desirable. McDaniels would hopefully be able to bring a new, more successful offensive style to the Bengals, which is exactly what the team needs. Not to mention, after years of success with the Patriots, he certainly knows about winning and how to achieve success.

Who do you want to see as the Bengals’ next head coach?