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Ever notice, no matter how many regular season wins they accrue or how many playoff seasons they string together, the Bengals always hover around the No.12 mark in national power rankings? I suppose it makes sense, given that there have traditionally been 12 playoff teams every year and the Bengals get bounced in the first round annually, but the minimal variance can get stale.
Pete Prisco of CBS Sports usually touts the orange and black as a quality team--especially in his weekly NFL Power Rankings that he does for the network. Recently, Prisco put out his coaching power rankings, which is something he's begun to do on an annual basis during the offseason.
Not surprisingly, the two coaches who made the Super Bowl last season head up the list at No. 1 (Bill Belichick) and No. 2 (Pete Carroll), respectively. Given Prisco's usually-positive stance toward the Bengals, it may surprise some fans to see where he placed head coach, Marvin Lewis.
16. Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals -- There was talk the Bengals should have fired Lewis after they lost their first playoff game for the fourth consecutive year last season. That's absurd. Lewis is 100-90-2 in his 12 seasons and has been to the playoffs six times. Not winning a playoff game holds him down here.
Fellow AFC North rivals finished well above Lewis with the Ravens' John Harbaugh and Steelers' Mike Tomlin ranking fifth and sixth respectively. Both coaches have won Super Bowls and both franchises are consistently in the playoff picture annually--there shouldn't be much gripe there.
Where there might be a little bit of head-scratching is the placement of guys like Ron Rivera (14), Chip Kelly (12), Bill O'Brien (11) and Bruce Arians (8). While they have their teams on the up-tick, we're talking about coaches who have a combined three playoff appearances and just one playoff win (Rivera's Panthers over Arians' Cardinals last season). Lewis has six playoff goose eggs of his own, but also has three division titles and double the amount of postseason berths as those four combined.