After 15 seasons in Cincinnati, Marvin Lewis is moving on.
Lewis will leave the Bengals after this season, ESPN reported this morning.
That’s no surprise: Lewis did a good job turning the Bengals around early in his tenure in Cincinnati, but more recently he has struggled, with two straight losing seasons. And Lewis still hasn’t won a playoff game.
But the ESPN report suggested that it’s more Lewis who wants to move on from the Bengals than the Bengals who want to move on from Lewis. One sticking point, according to the report, is that Lewis believes his assistants have been “treated unfairly financially.” Bengals owner Mike Brown has been accused of pinching pennies in the past, and the report indicates that Lewis and the coaching staff are sick of it.
It’s unclear whether Lewis could coach anywhere else in 2018, or who the Bengals may hire. But it looks like for the first time since Dick LeBeau was fired after the 2002 season, Cincinnati is looking for a new head coach.