On this date in 2018, Cincinnati fans weren’t too high on Marvin Lewis. The Bengals head coach had just missed the postseason for the second-straight season, but it’s not like anyone would have had much faith in the team had they found a way to sneak into the playoffs. After all, Lewis had (and still has) his infamous 0-7 playoff record, with the head coach guiding the organization to first-round exits every year between the 2011 and 2015 campaigns.
So, with the team having only won 13 combined games between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, it only seemed natural to move on from Lewis, right? Nah. Instead, on January 2nd, 2018, the Bengals signed Lewis to a two-year extension that would last through the 2019 campaign. As an aside, Lewis had traditionally inked one-year extensions with the organization, so the two-year pact was met with plenty of ire.
A Bleacher Report article said the extension was a “commitment to mediocrity,” while Will Brinson of CBS Sports described the move as “stunning.” If you want a take on fan reactions, you can check out the comments section of our own article.
Lewis and the organization didn’t do much to calm fans’ nerves when discussing the extension. The coach acknowledged that he probably would have been fired in any other city (per USA Today), while Bengals President Mike Brown admitted that the team had recently “fallen short of our expectations.”
“My job is to win a World Championship,” Lewis said in a statement that day. “We have a talented roster full of veteran leaders and emerging young stars, and I am committed to making the necessary improvements to put this team in the best position to win.”
Critics of the extension were punching air through the five weeks of the 2018 season. With Lewis serving as the second longest-tenured head coach in the NFL (behind Bill Belichick), the Bengals held the top spot in the AFC North with a 4-1 record, and they entered their bye week at 5-3. Then the wheels fell off. The Bengals dropped five consecutive contests and finished the season with a 6-10 record. Raise your hand if you know what happened next. The Bengals and Lewis decided to mutually part ways with a year remaining on the coach’s contract.
Cincinnati bottomed out in 2019 with new head coach Zac Taylor at the helm, allowing them to snag Joe Burrow with the top pick. Lewis hasn’t really committed to returning to the NFL, but he’s still been connected to a number of openings. Over the past few years, Lewis has been linked to head coaching gigs in Washington and Dallas, and he interviewed for the lead position with the Texans in late December. The 62-year-old has been on the Arizona State coaching staff for the past two seasons.
When the extensions was signed three years ago today, Lewis and the Bengals organization probably weren’t envisioning their present-day status. Everyone else? I think we all saw this coming.