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Time for a new attitude
Marvin Lewis deserves his shot. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images |
By Don Banks
I don't disagree that the smart money says the Bengals should hire Tom Coughlin if it's a quick respectability fix they seek. After all, the former Jaguars head coach is the only leading candidate who has won an NFL game. And in his last job, he marched Jacksonville all the way to the AFC title game in just his second season.
So Coughlin is safe. Coughlin is solid. For the bedraggled Bengals, just getting to solid would be real progress.
But Coughlin is what he is, a disciplinarian-style coach who knows how to bring order from chaos. He then remains so regimented that he usually winds up losing his audience. He has a definite upside, it's just that we know exactly where it is, and can see the whole trajectory of the arc: its rise, apex and descent.
To me, Coughlin represents the old when the Bengals, with little left to lose, would be better served by going with the new. Washington defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, the other top candidate, is a promising blank canvas.
The Bengals wouldn't know nearly as much about what they're getting with Lewis, but in exchange for that risk, they could be well rewarded. Though unproven as a head coach, Lewis is personally impressive and has had eye-opening success as an assistant.
Bengals team president Mike Brown is known to be enamored with the notion of identifying and hiring the next Brian Billick or Bill Cowher in his division, meaning a young head coach on his way up who can build a long-term, successful program.
Lewis seems like a good place to start looking. Lewis worked under both Billick in Baltimore and Cowher in Pittsburgh, knows the AFC North well, and would walk into the Bengals job with instant credibility among his rivals.
And though he has been known as a perpetual bridesmaid in terms of recent coaching vacancies, somebody is going to soon hire him and find out if he has as much aptitude and potential as he seems to. So why not the Bengals? And why not now?
Whereas Coughlin is older and set in his ways -- successfully so in some cases -- I believe Lewis would bring more energy and innovation to the gargantuan task of turning the Bengals around. The payoff would probably be quicker under Coughlin, but the window of success might also be short-lived.
My sense is that Bengals executives Katie and Troy Blackburn -- Brown's daughter and son-in-law -- are the agents for change within the organization and are pushing for Brown to make a bold statement with this hire. I think they want a new, promising face, and the early indications are that most Bengals fans agree.
Lewis is that face of the future. C'mon, Bengals, don't be afraid to take that step forward.
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Attend Camp Coughlin
Tom Coughlin made the Jags respectable. AP |
By Peter King
I want to preface my remarks on the Cincinnati coaching job by saying that anyone who takes the position as it is currently structured -- unless it's strictly for 401k and IRA purposes -- is a loon. You're not winning with owner Mike Brown and his heirs watching coaching tape with you, making suggestions, running free agency and being the face of your organization.
Having said that, I have an idea.
I can think of 10 arguments for not advocating Tom Coughlin as the next coach of the Bengals. He's not player-friendly, he's going to turn off some potential free agents, he's sour, he's dour, and ... well, give me some time and I can think of the rest.
But there is one very big reason why Coughlin should be the Bengals' next coach. Only one candidate will have the power and force of personality even remotely needed to get the Bengals to .500 (and I am not blinded enough by Coughlin's motivation and coaching abilities to think he could make the playoffs, but he could make them competitive): Tom Coughlin.
It's pretty simple why. At the start of the season, the Bengals had the nucleus of a top-10 defense, a very good running back in Corey Dillon, two first-round offensive tackles and lousy quarterbacking. In the NFL, that translates to anywhere between 9-7 and 5-11. The Bengals, of course, exceeded all horrible expectations in going 2-14.
But the reason this team swan-dived is that the players found it simple to take the easy way out. They found it easy to not take the offseason program seriously, and to start making excuses when times got tough, and to talk openly about how smelly the front office was, and to flat-out stop trying in games. What were the consequences? Nothing! The Bengals didn't have the guts, smarts or the stones to do anything about the 15 or 20 bums on their roster.
Oh, Coughlin would do something about those things.
He would also manage free agency better and give agents and players a reason to believe Cincinnati is no longer Siberia. You have no idea how important that is.
Coughlin, at the end of the day, would have a lot of players hate him. They'd mock his "Concentration Line." (Once they pass a painted line near the practice field, they'll have to be all business.) They'd hate his training camp. They'd rebel against all his full-padded practices.
But there is a reason why the Bengals are considering paying Coughlin $10 million over four years, which I hear they're considering doing.
Because a team that has Brown or a coach without control as its front man has no chance to win. A team that has Coughlin does.
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