Posted by Ryan Wilson
It's all about perspective. In January, shortly after the Bengals put the finishing touches on another underwhelming season, pretty much everybody -- Marvin Lewis included -- figured the team would have a new head coach in the coming weeks.
Somehow, owner Mike Brown didn't fire Lewis -- and Lewis didn't quit -- which only makes sense in the Groundhog Day/bizarro/funhouse-mirror world of the Cincinnati Bengals. Although Lewis will be back for a ninth season, the team will look decidedly different in 2011.
Quarterback Carson Palmer has threatened to retire if the team doesn't trade him, and wide receiver/soccer hopeful/amateur bull rider Chad Ochocinco has likely caught his last pass in Bengal stripes. Which opens the door for second-round pick Andy Dalton and a bunch of young receivers, including first-rounder AJ Green.
Lewis, appearing on ESPN 101 in St. Louis, spoke on a variety of topics, including whether Dalton could be under center in Week 1.
“Well that’s something we are going to have to see what happens and how it plays out, but there’s no question when we selected Andy Dalton we selected him with that in mind -- that he’d possibly be our opening day starting quarterback,” said Lewis, according to SportsRadioInterviews.com.
Different strokes for different folks, we guess. The Panthers, Titans, Jaguars and Vikings all drafted quarterbacks in the first round (Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder, respectively), but none are expected to start.
Cincy backup Jordan Palmer, who referred to his brother as a "former teammate" earlier in the week, will have a chance to win the gig. But he won't have the luxury of knowing the playbook any better than Dalton; offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski was fired during the offseason and was replaced by Jay Gruden. Everybody's learning a new system.
When asked about Carson's decision to call it a career unless his trade demands are met, Lewis sounded like a man who had long since come to terms with losing the one-time face of the franchise. "Those decisions don’t come overnight," Lewis said. "Those are things that sit in your belly for a long time and they really have a tendency to bother you, so it’s a good decision that he made to move on with the rest of his life and we understand that and accept that. We’ve put things together to move forward, and we’re excited about it. It’s been a great offseason that way, and when we get an opportunity to start working with our players we’ll be fired up and ready to go.”
By most accounts, the organization did a swell job of using the April draft to re-stock the roster. Cincy landed their quarterback of the future in Dalton, the best college wideout in the country in Green, and both will join a young group of pass catchers who showed gobs of potential late last season. Whether it will be enough to improve on a 4-12 record is another matter entirely. But it's not like Lewis hasn't dealt with losing before; in his eight previous seasons, the Bengals finished above .500 just twice. This time, though, the task should be easier if for no other reason than Lewis won't be preoccupied with trying to keep Ochocinco happy.
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