The Bengals’ fan base provides a keen knowledge of all things football, while also being cynical due to the team’s history. Whether it’s analyzing all of the team’s personnel moves, or not being satisfied with the status quo, fans have a solid grasp on what’s happening on all things Who Dey.
On this week’s Orange and Black Insider, we continued one of our regular segments in fielding listener questions. This week, we received a couple of interesting queries having to do with Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and in the correlating legal situations with Adam Jones and Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis.
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For those who don’t know, Revis has been caught up in a crazy scenario lately. While inexplicably walking the streets of his hometown of downtown Pittsburgh, Revis encountered a couple of young men and what ensued was his being charged of four felonies and a misdemeanor. As listener Waldo noted, Revis’ current conundrum correlates to what Adam Jones has been facing since his arrest shortly after the new year.
When we examined both situations, co-host Scott Schultze and I noted how many similarities there were in the situations. First round selections, Pro Bowl berths and assault charges are all obvious ones, as are the contract issues New York and Cincinnati face with each player. The Jets have quite a bit more cash tied up into Revis than do the Bengals with Jones, but both have been tabbed as possible starters in 2017.
Making the situations both easier and more difficult is with the down years both had in 2016. With New York busting on former first round corner Dee Milliner and the Bengals having a plethora of untapped potential at the position, it’s a roll of the dice to let them go amidst the entanglements.
Still, with both teams under the microscope and clamoring for feel-good stories after awful 2016 campaigns, it’s hard to rationalize their keeping of both respective players when they are undoubtedly also trying to build a championship locker room. But, are talent and experience more important facets in the rebound process, or do both teams need clean slates?
On the Bengals’ front, most fans have noted their preference to see Jones go, regardless of what happens with Dre Kirkpatrick in free agency. Though we haven’t readily polled Jets fans, one can assume that with these allegations, his contract and Revis’ penchant for bailing on teams for a more lucrative deal points to their possible preference for Gang Green to move on from him.
Whichever camp in which both fan bases reside, one can’t deny how one legal situation impacts the other. Jones’ issues have been lingering, including delayed court dates and other frustrating entanglements that come with these charges. It’s likely that Revis will experience the same type of red tape issues, which is causing their respective teams reluctant to pull the plug.
As of now, we don’t know who will face legal and/or NFL ramifications first, but given the Bengals’ preference to be more reactionary than a proactive franchise, they might see wat happens with Revis first. At first blush, the knee-jerk reaction is for Cincinnati to cut ties with Jones, but they might be playing coy as disciplinary continue to play out—especially with uncertainty at the position.
Most of us on the OBI podcast were in the camp of cutting ties with Jones shortly after this issue. However, with free agency the NFL Draft and Revis’ situation all yet ot play out, the Bengals might actually be playing this right, from a business perspective.
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If you’re relatively new to the Bengals’ fan base, then you may or may not be familiar with the team continuously giving short-term extensions to embattled head coach, Marvin Lewis. In one camp, Bengals’ faithful look back at what Lewis has done since his rebuilding of the team since his arrival in 2003. In the other camp, folks have seen enough after Lewis’ 0-7 postseason record.
Even after a massively disappointing 6-9-1 season last year, Lewis hinted that he and the front office were talking about another extension on his contract that expires after 2017. Most believe Lewis should be on a one-year prove-it deal this season and the team has yet to agree with him on such to this point.
One of our listeners noted this because, by the end of February, an announcement of the continuation of Lewis’ tenure as Bengals head coach would have been known. However, the question isn’t as much about if Lewis is deserving, but more about if a lack of one this offseason points to the front office actually buying into the “prove-it” mindset.
Scott and I weren’t buying the notion. Lewis, Duke Tobin, Katie Blackburn and Mike Brown seem to have a great working relationship and Lewis seems to have this job as long as he wants it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to send the best message to the locker room, especially with the players who might have grown stale with Lewis’ mantra.
We aren’t sure if a lack of an extension means that the Bengals don’t have faith in Lewis, but it seems more like a standstill that coincides with Lewis overseeing a poor season. It’s just another frustrating unanswered question in an offseason that has so much turmoil going into 2017.
As aggravating as the Bengals’ stagnant attitude has been in the early moths of 2017 has been, perhaps there is some rational thinking to it.
We are live every week on our YouTube channel and here at Cincy Jungle as we record the program. The Orange and Black Insider staff also answers fan questions regularly, so you can submit them there or on our other media platforms. If you’re unable to catch the show live, you can download our content here at CJ and YouTube, or at our SoundCloud channel and on iTunes. We’re also reachable on Twitter @BengalsOBI and via email at theobinisder@gmail.com. Subscribe today!