Bengals bringing back Bill Lazor as offensive coordinator for 2018

The Bengals are bringing back Bill Lazor as offensive coordinator for the 2018 NFL season.

Lazor took over for former Bengals offensive coordinator Ken Zampese after the Bengals’ Week 2 loss to the Houston Texans.

“We have a lot of talent on this roster and I am excited for the opportunity to build the high-powered offense we have the potential to be,” Lazor said. “This offseason will give us the chance to continue the success we had at the end of the year as we develop into a dynamic offense in 2018.”

Lazor had been named Bengals quarterbacks coach for the Bengals on Jan. 18, 2016. He previously has served as NFL offensive coordinator and/or QBs coach for Washington, Seattle, Philadelphia and Miami.

“He’s very comfortable with how I see it,” Lewis said of Lazor yesterday before the contract extension for the offensive coordinator was made official. “We basically wasted the 2,000 snaps of OTAs and training camp because it was through another man’s eyes. When Bill took over, Bill was able to try and work through things that had been already done without trying to slow our players down. He tried to work in the constraints of the way things were and the things that had been installed.”

This season, the Bengals ranked 32nd in yards, 27th in passing yards, 31st in rushing yards and 26th in points scored this season. That's an embarrassing stat line for this offense and apparently is enough for Lazor to retain his job as offensive coordinator.

We can only hope that he’ll do better with a full offseason to scheme and come up with plays for his offense. He didn’t have that in 2017 as he was set to be the quarterbacks coach for a second year before Zampese did such a terrible job as coordinator in the first two games that he became the first coordinator to be fired-mid season in the Bengals’ 50 year history.

Lazor showed signs of hope early in games this year, but the second half of games was when the play calling fell apart after all the designed drives were used up. These stats explain just how bad things were in the second half of games:

Remember when the Bengals led by 17 against the Steelers in Week 13 only to lose by three points after scoring only three points in the second half? Or how about the Titans game when the Bengals trailed by only four at halftime but could only score one touchdown in the second half and lost by four. Maybe best of all, remember the Packers game? In that game, the Bengals got off to a terrific start with 21 first half points only to go on to score a total of three additional points in a game that went to overtime and turned into a loss for Cincinnati.

Lazor will need to do better in 2018 if the Bengals’ offense is to improve from the laughable state it was in for nearly all of 2017.