Marvin Lewis

[BengalszoneBilly]

Well, who really wants to remember, eh?

All I can say is ever since Coach Lewis arrived, he's been making it much easier to forget those dark years as perrenial doormats. I hate to say it, but Mike Brown has also seems to have changed for the better as well. I'm speaking in terms of loosening up his financial purse strings. It's still my opinion we need to lock him out of the draft room...

[aaronburr]

...Seems like the building blocks were put in place for Marvin to succeed, unlike some of his predecessors.

If you want to defend Coslet and LeBeau for not having been given every opportunity to win, that's fine. But don't really expect to make the argument that Marvin's accomplishments are anything less than extraordinary.

You don't just stumble into the kind of success he's had the past 4 years.

Coslet and LeBeau might not have had Carson, a decent weight room, or a respectable scouting system, but they also didn't have those extra 3 or 4 season of futility to overcome.

They also didn't have the leadership ability to make those changes happen.

It's not like Mike Brown woke up one day and said, I'm going to change the organization and hand over the keys to whichever coach walks in through that door.

After all, he could've hired Tom "Don't Blame Me" Coughlin.

[Spor_tees]

...Seems like the building blocks were put in place for Marvin to succeed, unlike some of his predecessors.

If you want to defend Coslet and LeBeau for not having been given every opportunity to win, that's fine. But don't really expect to make the argument that Marvin's accomplishments are anything less than extraordinary.

You don't just stumble into the kind of success he's had the past 4 years.

Coslet and LeBeau might not have had Carson, a decent weight room, or a respectable scouting system, but they also didn't have those extra 3 or 4 season of futility to overcome.

They also didn't have the leadership ability to make those changes happen.

It's not like Mike Brown woke up one day and said, I'm going to change the organization and hand over the keys to whichever coach walks in through that door.

After all, he could've hired Tom "Don't Blame Me" Coughlin.

An 8-8 record his first 2 years isn't

anything less than extraordinary.

And if you do look at the changes that occurred when Marvin was hired, I do believe that Mike Brown did decide it was time to make a change. Coslet and LreBeau were not horrible coaches. In fact they were and are great Coordinators. Coslet was the Offensive Coordinator for the Bengals when they went to the Super Bowl and LeBeau was the Defensive Coordinator. I don't think anyone can say that LeBeau isn't anything short of a defensive genius with his development of the 3-4 zone blitzing scheme that many coordinators try to use today. The problem was they didn't have that head coach personality that could take charge and ignite a team to win.

If you don't think that Marvin was given a better chance to succeed than any other recently hired coach for the Bengals in recent history, then you must have been following a different team than I have for the past 30 years.

[aaronburr]

An 8-8 record his first 2 years isn't

anything less than extraordinary.

After a decade of losing records, yes, I think it is.

If you don't think that Marvin was given a better chance to succeed than any other recently hired coach for the Bengals in recent history, then you must have been following a different team than I have for the past 30 years.

That's not what I said. But it takes more than "a better chance to succeed" to actually succeed.

And like I said, you can defend Coslet and LeBeau all you want --- they've both proven themselves as coordinators, no argument from me. But, in my opinion, Marvin is a better head coach.

But I could be wrong. Take a poll...now that the Bengals are a winning team, would you trade Marvin Lewis for Coslet, LeBeau or any other coach in the league?

And if you think Mike Brown is just going to change his mind, without some kind of outside influence, then you must have been following a different GM than I have for the past 15 years.

[GapControl]

And if you think Mike Brown is just going to change his mind, without some kind of outside influence, then you must have been following a different GM than I have for the past 15 years.

The outside influence is Brown`s age and his daughter and her husband coming to their own as executives in his organization. Marvin just happened to be the best man for the job at the time Brown relinquished some control in order to better his golden years. Add to the fact the city of Cincinnati was publically threatening and humilating the Brown family with lawsuits and there you have your outside influence.

All that aside, I worship the ground Marvin Lewis walks on. He did it when no one else had...