Coaches

Marvin Lewis is in his seventh season as Bengals head coach, one year from tying Paul Brown and Sam Wyche for the franchise’s longest tenure of eight seasons. In Bengals head coaching victories, he also ranks third (behind Wyche and Brown).

Lewis enters 2009 tied for fifth in the NFL for current consecutive seasons as a head coach (seven). The only coaches with longer active streaks are Jeff Fisher (15, all with Titans/Oilers), Andy Reid (11 with Philadelphia), Bill Belichick (10 with New England) and John Fox (eight with Carolina). Sharing fifth place with Lewis is Jacksonville’s Jack Del Rio.
 
Lewis also has cracked the active top 10 for most total seasons as an NFL head coach. In this category, his seven seasons tie him with Del Rio for ninth place.
 
Lewis’s record over his six previous campaigns is 46-49-1 in the regular season, 0-1 in postseason and 46-50-1 overall. He needs nine victories to tie Paul Brown (55-59-1) in Bengals annals and is 18 wins behind Wyche (64-68).

Lewis’s Bengals log includes an AFC North Division championship in 2005, and he coached his first five years (2003-07) without experiencing a losing season, the club’s longest such streak since a six-year span from 1972-77. But the Bengals need a rebound in 2009. The club slipped to a 7-9 mark in 2007, and last year scrapped to only 4-11-1, with Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Palmer missing 12 games due to an elbow injury.

But Palmer has fully recovered without surgery as the 2009 season begins, and prospects for ’09 also are buoyed by the continuing improvement of the Bengals defensive unit.
 
Lewis hired veteran NFL coordinator Mike Zimmer to pilot the defense last year, and playing through numerous injuries, including the loss of top draft pick Keith Rivers, the defense climbed to a No. 12 NFL ranking by season’s end.

Under Lewis, the Bengals have strongly maintained popularity numbers which lead the Cincinnati charts.

The team enters 2009 with a franchise-record streak of 44 consecutive home sellouts (regular season and postseason), and for the last 68 TV ratings weeks that have included a Bengals game, the Bengals have each week been the top-rated show of all programming in Cincinnati. The sellout streak began in 2003, Lewis’ first season, and the TV ratings streak began in 2004.

Lewis was named the ninth head coach in Bengals history on Jan. 14, 2003, becoming at the time the eighth African-American to become an NFL head coach. In recognition of the 8-8 Bengals being the NFL’s most improved team in 2003, Lewis finished second behind Bill Belichick of Super Bowl champion New England in Associated Press voting for NFL Coach of the Year.

Lewis came to the Bengals with credentials as a record-setting NFL defensive coordinator who had earned a Super Bowl championship ring.

In 2002, the season before he joined the Bengals, Lewis led the Washington Redskins to a No. 5 NFL defensive ranking, serving as assistant head coach as well as defensive coordinator. He came to the Redskins after six seasons (1996-2001) as defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens, a tenure that included a Super Bowl victory in the 2000 season.

In the 2000 regular season, Lewis’s Baltimore defense set the NFL record for fewest points allowed in a 16-game campaign (165), clipping 22 points off the previous mark. The 2000 Ravens are always an entry in discussions regarding the best NFL defenses of all time.
 
Lewis had his first NFL assignment from 1992-95, as linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. At Pittsburgh, he guided the careers of Pro Bowl selections Kevin Greene, Chad Brown, Levon Kirkland and Greg Lloyd. The Steelers opportunity came for Lewis after 11 years in college coaching.
 
Lewis began his coaching career as linebackers coach at his alma mater, Idaho State, from 1981-84. ISU’s team (also nicknamed the Bengals) finished 12-1 during Lewis’s first season and won the NCAA Division 1-AA championship. From 1985-86, Lewis was linebackers coach at Long Beach State, and he held the same post at New Mexico from ’87-89. In 1990, he accepted a position coaching outside linebackers at the University of Pittsburgh, and he joined the Steelers and the NFL after two seasons at Pitt.
 
Lewis played LB at Idaho State, earning All-Big Sky Conference honors for three consecutive years (1978-80). He also saw action at quarterback and free safety during his college career. He received his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Idaho State in 1981, and earned his master’s in athletic administration in ’82. He was inducted into Idaho State’s Hall of Fame in 2001.

Born Sept. 23, 1958, Lewis attended Fort Cherry High School in McDonald, Pa. (near Pittsburgh), where he was an all-conference quarterback and safety. He also earned high school letters in wrestling and baseball. He and his wife, Peggy, have a daughter, Whitney, and a son, Marcus.

PLAYING AND COACHING HISTORY - 1978-80: Played linebacker, quarterback and safety at Idaho State. 1981-84: Assistant coach (AC), Idaho State. 1985-86: AC, Long Beach State. 1987-89: AC, New Mexico. 1990-91: AC, Univ. of Pittsburgh. 1992-95: AC, Pittsburgh Steelers. 1996-2001: Defensive coordinator, Baltimore Ravens. 2002: Assistant head coach/defensive coordinator, Washington Redskins. 2003-present: Bengals head coach.