MONDAY, 8:40am: The Bengals have officially announced Lewis’ new one-year extension, via the club’s website.
FRIDAY, 4:57pm: The Bengals have tacked another year onto Marvin Lewis‘ contract, according to Michael Silver of the NFL Network, who reports (via Twitter) that Lewis has agreed to a one-year extension, which will keep him under team control through the 2017 season.
Lewis, who has been coaching the Bengals since 2003, is the second longest-tenured head coach in the NFL, behind Bill Belichick in New England. During his 13 seasons with the team, Lewis has led Cincinnati to a 112-94-2 regular-season record and has earned a playoff spot seven times. However, the Bengals have yet to win a postseason game under Lewis, going 0-7 in those contests.
Asked at last month’s owners meetings about the possibility of extending Lewis’ contract beyond the 2016 season, Bengals owner Mike Brown was somewhat noncommittal. “He’s going to be our coach this year. That’s in the bank,” Brown said, per Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Where it goes, we’ll see how it plays out.”
Of course, Brown’s lack of an enthusiastic vote of long-term confidence for Lewis doesn’t mean the head coach is or isn’t on the hot seat entering 2016, and neither does the fact that his new deal is just for one year. Last April around this time, Lewis received a similar one-year extension, as he and the Bengals have made a habit out of working out short-term contracts that keep him from entering a season as a “lame duck.”
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