Former Elite Bengals Coaches Land 2024 Jobs with Raiders

The Cincinnati Bengals have been known as one of the most resistant teams in the NFL to change.  After all, they have only had two head coaches over the past 21 years even though many of those years were far less than we would call spectacular.  Well it looks like the teams former head coach has finally found his way back to the NFL to meet his former team but this time, it’ll be as the opposition.

Former Bengals Head Coach Returns to NFL with Las Vegas

After serving is various roles with the Arizona State Sun Devils over the past five years, former Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis is finally on his way back into the fold.  Earlier this week, Lewis was named an assistant head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders under Antonio Pierce.

Lewis served as a mentor to Pierce during their tenure together at Arizona State and his fingerprints can be seen all over this team even now just by the made up title that he will have.  Lewis was known to act and utilize “special advisors” and “assistants” during his time with Cincinnati and he clearly has shown Pierce how to utilize patronage to bring in talented coaches.

While he is best known as the head coach of Cincinnati from 2003 to 2018, arguably Lewis’ greatest accomplishment came as defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens from 1996 to 2001 when he put together arguably the best NFL defense of all time with the 2000 Baltimore team.  Another advantage to Lewis is that he clearly knows how to manage a team after consistently pushing Cincinnati into the playoffs even with mediocre quarterback Andy Dalton at the helm.

While it may be relatively old news that Lewis was hired with Las Vegas, it has also been reported that his long time partner and one of his “special advisors” Hue Jackson has also interviewed for a position on the offensive staff under Pierce.  Jackson worked with Lewis in Cincinnati and fits the theme for Pierce by bringing in an absurd level of experience including two stints as an NFL head coach with the Raiders in 2011 and then with the Cleveland Browns from 2016 to 2018.

While he is clearly an incredibly experienced offensive coach, Jackson’s stint with Cleveland left him incredibly unpopular in the NFL.  During his three years with Cleveland, he earned an abysmal 3-36 record including an atrocious winless 2017 season.  When he was fired from Cleveland, some people considered it that he immediately went across the division back to Cincinnati to serve the team as a “special advisor”.  Jackson was a terrific offensive coordinator in Cincinnati however as built one of the leagues best offenses in 2015 and was consistently above average during his tenure.

While there is no golden recipe for building a successful NFL team, Pierce is utilizing a clear and reasonable strategy building his staff with as much experience as he possibly can.  After all, Lewis and Jackson have decades upon decades of experience building units from nothing to powerhouses like the 2000 Ravens defense.  Las Vegas and Pierce will rely upon their experience to right the ship after the team has suffered through a turbulent few years with multiple head coaching changes.