Zen-like Todd Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35710-2003Jan9.html washingtonpost.com Lewis, Bengals Close By Mark Maske and Leonard Shapiro Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, January 10, 2003; Page D1 Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis was close last night to becoming the next head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, NFL sources said. Lewis met with Bengals officials yesterday in Cincinnati and emerged as the team's top candidate ahead of former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin, according to sources. Barring a last-minute snag in the deliberations, Lewis likely will be offered the job and accept it within the next few days, sources said. Lewis declined to comment on the details of the discussions, but said by telephone last night: "It was a good visit. We'll be negotiating further. I think things will be okay." Lewis said he did not necessarily expect the matter to be resolved today. Asked about the details of yesterday's meeting and if and when he expects the job to be offered to him, Lewis said: "I can't get into that." Redskins officials were were prepared to lose him. They were planning to elevate linebackers coach George Edwards to defensive coordinator, and continue running a system similar to the one that Lewis used to produce the league's fifth-ranked defense this season. The Bengals still could have another discussion with Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey if the Steelers lose their playoff game at Tennessee on Saturday, sources said, but they appeared to have all but settled on Lewis. Coughlin met with Bengals officials earlier yesterday. He arrived in Cincinnati in the morning and left town in the afternoon without having been offered the job, accordingto a source. Lewis and Coughlin emerged as the front-runners this week from among a group of five candidates interviewed by the Bengals, who fired Dick LeBeau last week after a 2-14 season. The Bengals also interviewed Mularkey and two Cincinnati assistants, defensive coordinator Mark Duffner and running backs coach Jim Anderson. The Bengals want to choose a head coach and have at least a partial staff in place by next week's college Senior Bowl practices in Mobile, Ala. Under NFL rules, the Bengals cannot talk to Mularkey again or hire him until after Pittsburgh is eliminated from the playoffs. Coughlin arrived in Cincinnati yesterday needing to work out some control issues to end up with the job. He had the final say over player-related decisions in Jacksonville, but would have had to share that authority in Cincinnati with Bengals President Mike Brown, who serves as the team's general manager. According to sources, Coughlin arrived for the meeting with a detailed plan of his vision for the Bengals' organization, and wanted the team to commit to adding staff members. The Bengals have the league's smallest scouting department, and many executives around the NFL believe that has been a major reason for Cincinnati's inability to have a winning season since 1990. Brown said recently he saw no reason for the Bengals to change, however, and sources said the only way the club planned to add scouts was if the new head coach didn't want to retain a certain assistant. If that assistant is under contract for next season, the sources said, he would serve as a scout. Brown seemed to want to hire a coach with a no-nonsense approach, and Coughlin has a reputation as one of the league's strictest disciplinarians. Money was not a stumbling block with Coughlin, who is owed his $2.4 million salary by the Jaguars for two more seasons. Any team hiring him simply has to pay him a market-value salary, and the Jaguars would owe Coughlin the difference between that salary and $2.4 million. Entering his meeting, Lewis apparently had the support of some key members of the Bengals' family-run front office, including executive vice president Katie Blackburn -- Brown's daughter -- and her husband Troy, the club'sdirector of business development. Lewis has been one of the league's most sought-after assistants since his defense set a single-season NFL scoring record and carried the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl title two seasons ago. But he failed to land a head-coaching job despite interviewing in Buffalo, Carolina and Tampa Bay, getting passed over by the Buccaneers' owners despite being the choice of General Manager Rich McKay. Lewis left the Ravens in the aftermath of the Tampa Bay setback andsigned a three-year, $2.7 million contract with the Redskins that made himthe NFL's highest-paid assistant coach. He recently passed up a chance to be the head coach at Michigan State University. The Redskins' defense struggled early in the season, and players complained about the difficulty they had in adjusting to his scheme. But the unit rebounded to give the Redskins their third straight top-10 defense under three different coordinators. Still, Coach Steve Spurrier said he would take a more active role next season in overseeing the club's defense and special teams. Edwards would become the Redskins' fifth different defensive coordinator in a span of five seasons, following Mike Nolan, Ray Rhodes, Kurt Schottenheimer and Lewis. He played for Spurrier at Duke and coached for him at the University of Florida. He spent four years with the Dallas Cowboys before coming to the Redskins, and several players -- including linebackers LaVar Arrington and Jessie Armstead -- have strongly endorsed him as Lewis's would-be successor. © 2003 The Washington Post Company /q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pga Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 For what it's worth.... a local Baltimore station (Fox) said on their "Sports Unlimited" show that it was Marvin's job if he wanted it for $2 million a year. They did not mention how many years. Again.......for what it's worth. That makes it sound sooner rather than later though. They also said the Cincy owner wants the coach (whomever it may be) in place by Sunday when the Senior Bowl is being played. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba9497 Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Wow, I was hearing it was TC's job for the taking this morning. Good for Lewis. I wonder if the Skin's called Mike Brown and offered them a draft pick to take Lewis off their hands? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorEye Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 I hope he moves on so we can finally put it to rest. We need someone who will be happy just being a DC for at least several years. Maybe Lavar will finally be happy. Ah, one can dream... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonnyJ Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 I find it incredible that Lewis (well, his agent), a first time head coach, was able to extract $2M/year from Mike Brown. If Brown is known for anything, it's for his, shall we say, frugality. I would guess $2M/year puts Lewis solidly in the middle of head coaches. I was figuring more like a million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba9497 Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2003/01/09/bengals_search/ Second impressions Lewis emerging as top candidate after Thursday interviews Posted: Thursday January 09, 2003 4:17 PM Updated: Friday January 10, 2003 12:04 AM By Don Banks, Sports Illustrated Though there remain significant issues for the two sides to work out, Washington defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis interviewed on Thursday night with Bengals officials for a second time and emerged as an even stronger leading candidate to become Cincinnati's next head coach. Lewis arrived in Cincinnati on Thursday evening and met with Bengals president Mike Brown and other team officials, touring the team's facilities and Paul Brown Stadium. Lewis and the team are scheduled to meet again on Friday, and Lewis plans to spend a good bit of time touring the city that may become his new home. The job does not yet belong to Lewis, and indications are he may not get a formal offer before he leaves Cincinnati late Friday. But with former Jacksonville head coach Tom Coughlin not strengthening his candidacy in an earlier interview on Thursday -- which represented his second trip to town in six days -- Lewis appears to be in prime position to land his first NFL head coaching job. "I think things have progressed well," said Lewis, from Cincinnati late Thursday night. "There are still things we have to talk about, but I like what I'm hearing and seeing." While the Bengals have the goal of hiring a head coach before team officials leave Sunday for the task of scouting the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., Brown would like to wait to see if Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey will be available for a second interview on Sunday. The Steelers play at Tennessee in the AFC divisional playoffs on Saturday afternoon, and Mularkey can't interview again with the Bengals until Pittsburgh has been eliminated. In an effort to give due diligence to his team's coaching search, and make sure of his choice, Brown is hopeful of giving Mularkey more of an opportunity to present his views than he received in his two-hour interview last Saturday in Pittsburgh. But there appears to be a chance that if things go well enough for both the Bengals and Lewis in their talks on Friday, Cincinnati could hire him even before Pittsburgh plays its game at Tennessee. "The Bengals have said from the start that I'm going to have to be patient," Lewis said. "They've got to be sure about this." Reached Thursday night, Mularkey declined comment on the Bengals' head coaching search. But sources close to the situation say Mularkey believes he remains in the picture in Cincinnati for now, and is hopeful that the Bengals are waiting to see how the Steelers fare on Saturday. Earlier Thursday, Coughlin flew to Cincinnati and met for several hours with Brown and team officials. Coughlin, too, toured the stadium and team facilities. But sources say his interview did not improve his chances of becoming the Bengals' top choice, and his candidacy has effectively fallen into the No. 3 position behind Lewis and Mularkey. One of the key issues, sources close to the situation said, was Coughlin's inability to convince the team it must commit to making significant structural changes -- such as in the size of the head coach's support staff. In terms of coaching and scouting, the Bengals are notorious for having smaller staffs than any NFL team. Coughlin is said to have targeted those support staff issues as a fundamental concern that must be worked through before he would consider accepting an offer to lead the team. Coughlin's intent in Thursday's interview was to make the case that the Bengals need to increase the size of the coach's support staff to somewhere near the NFL average of 17 assistants, supplementing roles such as strength and conditioning and quality control. Cincinnati's previous coaching staffs have been much leaner than that, by as many as a half-dozen bodies. Coughlin presented a detailed plan that laid out his staffing requests, right down to the salary levels that would put those hires within the NFL average at those positions. Coughlin proposed contractually including those staffing minimums into any deal he and the Bengals would strike. "Tom's going to say 'I think we can do this. I'd like to try. But we need to be on at least a par with the rest of the league as far as basic staffing,'" a source close to the situation said before the interview. "He wants to get things at least up to code." But those staffing requests amount to a huge sticking point between the Bengals and Coughlin, and sources say there was little agreement between the two sides on that issue on Thursday. Brown is on record as saying he believes the size of the Bengals coaching and scouting staffs are satisfactory and do not put the club at any competitive disadvantage. Brown is very firm in that opinion and the issue represents a potential dealbreaker with Coughlin. "I think the important thing was that each party got a chance to express their views," said a source familiar with Coughlin's interview. "They didn't leave anything in the bag." Lewis also has some similar concerns, but sounded a conciliatory tone Thursday night when asked about how he'll approach the issue of making changes to the scouting and support staff. "There are certain things that Mike [brown] believes very strongly in," Lewis said. "And you've got be able to adapt to those. But there are other ways to approach things. He wants to win, and so do I. It's a good opportunity to get things done." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inmate running the asylum Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 I'll be happy if Lewis moves on. Otherwise it's a big distraction for the organization every year. George Edwards will do fine as our new DC. Besides IMHO I think assistant coachs are overrated. If you have the players you succeed, otherwise you usually don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out of town marv. If he doesn't go, we should fire him. At least now Johnny ****ran will shut the fu(k up. :finger: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 No he won't. :puke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nighthawk Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 If we fire him, we have to pay him and I just don't see that happening especially when he had the 5th ranked defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kleese Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Rankings are misleading. We had the 5th ranked defense, but we were nowhere close to having the 5th BEST defense in the league. I fully expected the offense to struggle this year. In the pre-season I said we would have to win some games 13-10. But I thought we could do it. I thought we had the talent, given an exceptional DC, to be a dominant defense. The D was decent this year, but fell short of expectations. They were really bad early which made our offensive woes seem magnified. Late in the year, they tightened up, but we still weren't very good on third downs, and we always seemed to allow to teams to move the ball right after our offense did something good. Our ranking was very misleading this year. I view what Marvin did a lot like how I view what Marty did. They didn't do a BAD job, but they didn't do anything to get excited about either. I am indifferent on whether he stays or goes. I honestly don't care. I actually lean towards wanting him gone simply because he seems do friggin' cranky about not being a head coach yet. I'm sure Edwards will keep the same philosophies and he already knows the players and coach's. I do NOT expect a rocky transition this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One Dollar Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 I think Tom Coughlin would be a better fit for Cinci. He is a more firey coach which is what those players need right now. Lewis just seems too wishy-washy and I think this is more of a NFL pressure hire for a minority coach if Lewis gets it. I still can't thank the Glazers enough for nixing the deal that would have had him in Tampa, what a nightmare that would have been, needless to say we wouldn't still be playing this weekend if that happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsThug Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Lewis is a very firey coach. He is very loud on the sidelines, and in training camp this year he went ballistic almost every other play when coaching the defense. He's nopt quite Jon Gruden, but close. Has to work on his scowl:laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Agreed SkinsThug. Dollar, not sure what game you may have watched, but one thing is certain. Wishy Washy and Marvin Lewis are rarely, if ever, used in the same sentence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 The Bengals have the league's smallest scouting department, and many executives around the NFL believe that has been a major reason for Cincinnati's inability to have a winning season since 1990. Brown said recently he saw no reason for the Bengals to change, however, . . . Have they interviewed Norv, yet? Sounds like a good fit. "The Bengals have said from the start that I'm going to have to be patient," No comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyDave Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Asst coach on a winning team or head coach on a team that will do the bae minimum to win? Well hopefullly we will have a Defensive coord that we dont have to worry about leaving after one year in place Suinday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 for awhile I was hoping Lewis would stay so we could see the same D in place for 2 years. But now I think I like the idea of Edwards getting the bump more. I think he'd give us a good 3-5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Why in the world would a quality coach like Lewis accept the head coaching job on a scrub team like the Bengals. I just can't figure it out. Perhaps it is "better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PennSkinsFan Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Originally posted by NavyDave Asst coach on a winning team or head coach on a team that will do the bae minimum to win? Well hopefullly we will have a Defensive coord that we dont have to worry about leaving after one year in place Suinday We have our own problems provign we can be a winning team. I just want this done. I am ready and resigned to see Edwards get his shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cskin Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Why in the world would a quality coach like Lewis accept the head coaching job on a scrub team like the Bengals. I just can't figure it out. Perhaps it is "better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven". Think about it, it's a win/win for Lewis. If he goes there and succeeds, he'll be considered a genius and one of the top coaches in the league. If he fails, others will blame it on the lack of scouting and poor F.O. that the league now blames their failure on., and he'll leave and immediately take another DC position. He'd be a fool not to take it. I wish him well, not get the hell out of here and take your crappy zone scheme and ineffective player usage with you to Cincy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex Posted January 10, 2003 Share Posted January 10, 2003 Originally posted by Cskin Think about it, it's a win/win for Lewis. If he goes there and succeeds, he'll be considered a genius and one of the top coaches in the league. If he fails, others will blame it on the lack of scouting and poor F.O. that the league now blames their failure on., and he'll leave and immediately take another DC position. He'd be a fool not to take it. I wish him well, not get the hell out of here and take your crappy zone scheme and ineffective player usage with you to Cincy! I can go along with what you said. My problem is I'd be happy working for the Skins handing out Gatorade to the players whereas Lewis knows it's a business and treats it as such. Overall it is for the best that he moves on. The drama surrounding the whole affair can be put to rest, allowing the team to move forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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