12-11-2017, 01:43 AM
It’s painfully obvious the Bengals are coming to the end of an era. God bless Marvin Lewis, his family, and his wonderful Foundation. Marvin took the Bengals from rejected to respectable and all Bengaldom owes him a debt of gratitude. He will leave Cincinnati as the winningest coach in Bengal history with his head held high.
Marvin Lewis was our Moses: He led the Bengals from the NFL version of slavery in Egypt to the borders of the Promised Land but, like Moses, Marvin will never enter it. We need our NFL version of Joshua who did enter the Promised Land. I have some ideas on who that might be.
Rebuilding starts with a new head coach who needs the autonomy to select his own coordinators who, in turn, need autonomy to select their own position coaches. My personal opinion is most of the coaching staff should be former Bengal players who excelled at their positions. The entire scouting department needs an enema and a fresh treatment with probiotics. The scouts need to be personally selected by the head coach and the three coordinators.
This plan won’t come together overnight nor even by next season or the next. The team must be rebuilt from the trenches out, Paul Brown style, with only the best players who fit the new scheme drafted or brought in via free agency. Such a team won’t win right away — but once everything is in place the team will win and do so consistently which brings me to the hardest thing to write:
The current stars on the Cincinnati roster must be given the options to enter free agency or be traded. They don’t have to take it but I don’t want Bengal standouts like AJ Green, Carlos Dunlap, Geno Atkins, Vontaze Burfict, Joe Mixon, and yes, Andy Dalton too, to have to play on a rebuilding team if they want to go win elsewhere. They sweated through hard times and gave their all so if these great men can’t get a ring here, I’m not opposed to them winning it all elsewhere. Those guys I mentioned would be solid contributors on any roster in the league.
The new coach and coordinators need to devise a winning scheme in all three phases of the game and stick to it: Balanced offense, disruptive defense, and opportunistic special teams. The great teams might adjust scheme but they don’t change scheme. New England and Pittsburgh play the same schemes every week and usually win.
It’s going to hurt. But if the Bengals want to win, no pain means no gain.
Marvin Lewis was our Moses: He led the Bengals from the NFL version of slavery in Egypt to the borders of the Promised Land but, like Moses, Marvin will never enter it. We need our NFL version of Joshua who did enter the Promised Land. I have some ideas on who that might be.
Rebuilding starts with a new head coach who needs the autonomy to select his own coordinators who, in turn, need autonomy to select their own position coaches. My personal opinion is most of the coaching staff should be former Bengal players who excelled at their positions. The entire scouting department needs an enema and a fresh treatment with probiotics. The scouts need to be personally selected by the head coach and the three coordinators.
This plan won’t come together overnight nor even by next season or the next. The team must be rebuilt from the trenches out, Paul Brown style, with only the best players who fit the new scheme drafted or brought in via free agency. Such a team won’t win right away — but once everything is in place the team will win and do so consistently which brings me to the hardest thing to write:
The current stars on the Cincinnati roster must be given the options to enter free agency or be traded. They don’t have to take it but I don’t want Bengal standouts like AJ Green, Carlos Dunlap, Geno Atkins, Vontaze Burfict, Joe Mixon, and yes, Andy Dalton too, to have to play on a rebuilding team if they want to go win elsewhere. They sweated through hard times and gave their all so if these great men can’t get a ring here, I’m not opposed to them winning it all elsewhere. Those guys I mentioned would be solid contributors on any roster in the league.
The new coach and coordinators need to devise a winning scheme in all three phases of the game and stick to it: Balanced offense, disruptive defense, and opportunistic special teams. The great teams might adjust scheme but they don’t change scheme. New England and Pittsburgh play the same schemes every week and usually win.
It’s going to hurt. But if the Bengals want to win, no pain means no gain.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
