Marvin Lewis expected to step down as Bengals head coach after 2017 season

Black Monday has not yet arrived, but there will be at least one more head coach opening out there. Two weeks after the New York Giants fired Ben McAdoo, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is expected to step down after the season. Adam Schefter reported the news Sunday morning, and said it was to “explore other opportunities.”

With a flurry of head-coaching openings expected in the coming weeks and a shortage of obvious head-coaching candidates with experience, Lewis is likely to be on teams' short lists of candidates, league sources said.

If a head-coaching job does not materialize, sources said Lewis would be interested in working in another team's front office or as a coaching adviser for a former Bengals assistant coach who has gone on to become a head coach, such as Mike Zimmer, whose Minnesota Vikings host the Bengals on Sunday.

Several other head coach positions are expected to open up when Black Monday arrives, so it will be interesting to see how many teams show interest in Lewis, and how much interest is reciprocated. The Bengals have finished in third place each of the last two seasons, but prior to that they made the playoffs five straight seasons, and six of their last seven seasons. However, they never advanced out of the wild card round, which led to a hot seat for Lewis.

Schefter is reporting that most of Lewis’ assistants are in the final year of their contracts, so there could be some options for teams to consider poaching. His coaching staff includes the following:

Paul Alexander - Asst HC, Offensive Line
Bill Lazor - Offensive Coordinator
Kyle Caskey - Running Backs
James Urban - Wide Receivers
Jonathan Hayes - Tight Ends
Robert Couch - Offensive Quality Control, Offensive Line
Dan Pitcher - Offensive Assistant, Wide Receivers
Paul Guenther - Defensive Coordinator
Jacob Burney - Defensive Line
Kevin Coyle - Secondary
Robert Livingston - Secondary
Marcus Lewis - Defensive Quality Control, Defensive Line
Darrin Simmons - Special Teams Coordinator
Brayden Combs - Asst Special Teams, Defensive Quality Control
Chip Morton - Strength & Conditioning
Jeff Friday - Assistant Strength & Conditioning