A New Bengal Way

(The following story appears in the current edition of Pro Football Weekly, dated Dec. 5, 2005. I have worked as a free-lance correspondent for PFW for three seasons.)

A New Bengal Way
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis' leadership
has helped engineer a turnaround
both on and off the field in Cincinnati

By Mark Curnutte
CINCINNATI – Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson had a new list in his Paul Brown Stadium locker the Wednesday morning before the first Baltimore game this season.

The team-oriented list challenged Johnson to block well and avoid all mental errors. Written, laminated and affixed in a late-night stealth mission by head coach Marvin Lewis, the new list replaced Johnson's own egocentric one that named every Ravens defensive back he planned to beat during the game.

The following Sunday morning at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Johnson found taped in his locker another list – Johnson’s original one from mini-camp that names each team’s opposing cornerback – and Lewis had successfully made his point without alienating his sometimes temperamental receiver: Strive for individual greatness but do so in the team context. Johnson has 13 receptions for 280 yards – including a single-game career best 189 against Indianapolis – since Lewis refocused the receiver.

"It just became chic over the years to have these sports psychologists," Lewis said. "Like I tell people all the time, when I get a letter in the mail, or when somebody gives me their card, `You can’t have my job. That's my job.' In fact, it's the most fun I have these days."

Psychologist is just one of the jobs Lewis has performed in leading the turnaround of the previously moribund Bengals franchise. In 42 games as coach, Lewis has a 23-19 record. In the 42 games prior to his hiring in January 2003, the Bengals were 12-30. In his third season, Lewis has the Bengals tied for first in their division and positioned to snap the franchise’s interminable 14-year playoff drought. In the time between their last playoff game and Lewis' first game as coach, the Bengals franchise posted a 55-137 record under Sam Wyche, Dave Shula, Bruce Coslet and Dick LeBeau.

But under Lewis, the team's national image has gone from woeful to winner. Lewis has had plenty of help, and he credits players, assistant coaches and front office for their hard work. But it's Lewis' vision that everyone follows, including owner club president Mike Brown.

Lewis is Bengals CEO in everything but title. Yet he's still, at heart, a football coach. Asked in a recent interview before the Indianapolis game why the Bengals lost so consistently for so long, Lewis said, 'When you practice as an NFL team, the ball should never touch the ground. Whatever you're practicing, blitzing, covering, everything should practice the way you're going to play the game on Sunday. If you can’t do it here in practice, how in the world are you going to get it done in the game?"

Besides his gift for getting along with people, Lewis has forced change in Cincinnati by earning increased authority in player personnel matters. He has been decisive and direct, choosing to start quarterback Jon Kitna in 2003 before announcing the switch to first overall draft pick Carson Palmer early in the 2004 offseason.

Though he had not been a head coach, Lewis had a plan ready to show Brown and the other members of the family’s ownership group. No detail was too small to discuss. Lewis produced notebooks detailing how he would structure practice, down to how much time would be dedicated to special teams. Lewis laid out on his laptop a coaching tree of assistants he would like to hire.

Lewis also gleaned from the two job interviews that the Bengals and Brown, in particular, were committed to winning. They would allow him to hire his staff, spend $250,000 to makeover the weight room and provide coaches and players with additional equipment, including a new state-of-the-art video department. Lewis wanted to remove excuses for not winning.

Brown bought in. And he and Lewis have developed a productive relationship and meet each morning.

"Not that we always need to agree on everything, but that when we walk out of that room together that's the way we're going to do things," Lewis said. "It's our policy. It's no different. It's the Cincinnati Bengals' decision. Not Mike's decision or Marvin's decision."

Lewis said he is comfortable with his relationship with Brown, down to and including the latitude Lewis has for making personnel decisions.

"I think they had to gain a confidence and trust in me and begin to see things through my eyes and what we were looking for personnel-wise (and) character-wise," Lewis said.

There had been an old "Bengal way" of operating that dated back to when team founder Paul Brown was in charge. But Bengals insiders say the organization had not changed since football legend Brown had died in August 1991. The hiring of head coaches from inside the franchise evaporated the flow of new ideas. Lewis' plan was shaped by a career as an assistant coach at four colleges and with three NFL teams. His primary influence was Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher, who hired Lewis as linebackers coach on his first Steelers staff in 1992.

"Bill’s interaction with players is excellent," Lewis said.

Lewis' first observation of the Bengals was that the organization was not nearly as dysfunctional as portrayed from the outside.

"I don't want to take credit for this: Brian Billick said it when he first got to Baltimore," Lewis said. "He told the players, `There are a lot of good people here. You guys got (former Ravens coach) Ted Marchibroda fired. You're not going to be me fired.' I think players have to understand that. There are a lot of good people trying to sell tickets and sell suites and market the team and do the things, scouting, busting their tails, let’s make sure we’re all held to the same standard and understand how important it is."

Lewis asked other Bengals employees – regardless of their department or role – to let him know directly if any player was not behaving correctly. Lewis told the equipment managers to tell him if the locker room was a mess at the end of the day.

"We were not so much going to get the popular guy but the guy that fits what we wanted to do – which was raise the level of professionalism in the whole building," Lewis said. "In simple terms, that's what we're trying to do. As coach, it's what I committed the coaches to doing: Simple, big at some times, maybe, but simple, step by step."

Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson, a Pro Bowl player in each of Lewis' first two seasons, said, "He has treated guys like pros, and we’ve acted like pros."

Only 13 players remain from the kickoff weekend roster in 2002, the season before Lewis' hiring. Lewis has overseen three drafts that have produced players such as Palmer, guard Eric Steinbach, running back Chris Perry, safety Madieu Williams and linebacker Odell Thurman. Eight of the 27 players drafted by the Bengals since Lewis was hired are now starters.

"There’s a lot here that’s different," the now-reclusive Brown said in an interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer at the start of the 2004 season. "The way we practice is different. The way we travel is different.

"It is his opportunity, and he should have the right as the coach to have real authority. And I have tried to give him that authority. And I think he has reached for it. I think he has used it well. I'm happy with how he has gone about it.

"He wants to run his show. And I want to help him run his show. I’m happy with how he has gone about it."

Brown also stepped out of the media glare. Lewis, they agreed, would be the one voice of the Bengals.

"My observation of places throughout the NFL, teams that had two or three people talking never seemed to be successful very long," Lewis said.

There are disagreements. Lewis wanted to sign free agent defensive tackle Warren Sapp before the 2004 season. Brown vetoed the move. The Bengals still refuse to backload contracts to induce free agents to sign in Cincinnati.

"Ultimately, Mike has the trump card," Lewis said. "But it's worked great. Mike doesn't want to put me in a situation where I have to cut somebody based on how much he makes. What it does is hurt the guys in the locker room. They look around and say, `It’s not how I'm playing. It's how much I make, even if I am a decent player and a starting player.'"

Lewis, despite the success in rebuilding the Bengals, said he has made some missteps. He wishes he had not alternated running backs Corey Dillon and Rudi Johnson toward the end of the 2003 season because they reduced each player's effectiveness.

Lewis also regrets not being able to convince Dillon to stay with the Bengals. Lewis also tried hard to talk unrestricted free agent linebacker Takeo Spikes into re-signing with the Bengals after the 2002 season.

"My biggest disappointments," Lewis said. "But things happen for a reason. We moved on. I think (Dillon and Spikes, now with New England and Buffalo, respectively) are both really good football players, and you want to keep all the good players on your side."

Deciding which players to keep and which ones to let leave is a fluid challenge for an NFL team. For example, the contracts of each of the five starters on the offensive line are due to expire after the 2006 season.

And those decisions, Lewis said, have to be made on whether the player is being productive across the scope of the league, not just if he has been a good player or a good guy for the Bengals.

Brown appreciates the work ethic brought to Cincinnati by Lewis, the son of a former steel mill worker and nurse practitioner. Lewis worked one summer in the mill and another on a garbage truck. He was a high school quarterback who studied opponents' game film in the coach’s office during the week. He went on to play safety and linebacker at Idaho State.

Brown has seen that Lewis is all about hard work.

"That thing I've learned is I have to do the research and do the work and present the plan," Lewis said. "They'll think about the plan and read it and we'll continue to talk about it."

Mark Curnutte covers the Bengals for The Cincinnati Enquirer.