Who wore it better?
The Cincinnati Bengals will host the Las Vegas Raiders this week, marking the return of former head coach Marvin Lewis, who is now an assistant in Vegas.
So, we decided that now was a good time to compare Lewis’ early Bengals tenure to that of current head coach Zac Taylor.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Marvin Lewis was hired as the head coach of the Bengals in 2003. We’re not going to be looking at his entire tenure, just the first five and a half years, which is where we’re at now with Zac Taylor.
Here is a graph of Lewis’ wins over his first 5.5 seasons:
And Taylor’s wins:
At both points, as you would expect when any new head coach is hired, the team was going through a complete rebuild. In the first few years of the Lewis era, the team was separating itself from the lowly ‘90s, and in the first few years of the Taylor era, they were rebuilding after the Dalton-led teams fell apart.
Lewis was gifted Carson Palmer with a No. 1 overall pick, and Taylor was gifted Joe Burrow, again with a No. 1 overall pick.
Both of them coached the soon-to-be-replaced quarterback in their first year with the franchise. Lewis began with Jon Kitna, and Taylor had Dalton and a myriad of backups. Both have had to deal with injury issues to their quarterback, though Burrow’s injuries have been more frequent and severe, and both had a roster chalked full of wide receiver talent.
Lewis was a defensive coach, while Taylor had a mind for offense. Even with Lewis’ defensive acumen, though, both administrations saw some of the most high-powered offenses in franchise history.
Let’s take a look at a few different metrics to see how the first 5.5 years of the Lewis era compare to what we’ve seen from the Taylor era so far.
Offense
Comparable, right? Each team’s first year was led by the former quarterback (Kitna/Dalton), and the rest of the time, the No. 1 overall pick was under center (kinda).
It’s hard to compare offenses from two totally different eras of NFL football, but the teams were built similarly as far as the roster goes. The high-flying offense from 2005 had Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Chris Henry.
The 2021 Bengals had Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd. The main difference between the two offenses is that Palmer and Burrow are very different. Palmer was immobile, but he had a cannon for an arm. Burrow is a much more cerebral quarterback and is much more mobile than Palmer. He doesn’t have the arm strength, but he’s more accurate.
Under Bob Bratkowski, the Bengals ran a downfield-passing offense, with Palmer and his concrete feet under center with a lot of deep routes, play action, and multiple-receiver sets. Burrow’s offense is more akin to the spread concept. He’s mostly in shotgun as the offense relies on rhythm and allows for routes at multiple depths to keep the quarterback’s options open.
We also have to remember that Burrow has been unavailable through large portions of his first few years in the NFL, missing large chunks of his rookie season and the last third of 2024.
Average point differential for Lewis: 18.7
Average point differential for Taylor: 19.6
Edge: Zac Taylor
Defense
Again, offenses are different now. The modern rules protect quarterbacks and wide receivers more than ever before, and while the Palmer era wasn’t the lawless ‘70s or ‘80s, it was much rougher.
It’s no surprise, though, that Lewis would have better defenses overall, considering he cut his teeth as a defensive coordinator. It seems as if Taylor has always been much more focused on the offense, leaving the defense to Lou Anarumo. It should also not be shocking at all that the Bengals’ most successful years in the Taylor era coincide with their best years of defense.
Edge: Marvin Lewis
Culture
Lewis entered one of the most toxic cultures in the NFL. The Bengals, free out of an entire decade of embarrassment, brought Lewis in, and with him, there came an unprecedented (at that time) era of success. No, they didn’t win any playoff games in his 16-year tenure, but he did go to the playoffs in seven seasons.
The Bengals also got a reputation, especially in the early Lewis years, of having players on the team who had frequent run-ins with police off the field or played recklessly on the field. Taylor’s teams have seemed to avoid that, drafting guys they feel won’t be problems in the locker room.
Taylor was fortunate enough to begin building on the foundation Lewis poured in Cincinnati. There have been a lot of changes. More has been spent in free agency than in years past (though the salary cap has increased), and fans have been given a Ring of Honor and more engagement than there was in the Lewis era.
This is objectively tough to judge, though, considering the point of view is coming from the outside.
Edge: Zac Taylor
Development
Taylor doesn’t have the sample size Lewis does over the latter’s entire career, so we’ll just be looking from 2003 through the first eight games of the 2008 season again. In that period of time, one player who was drafted by Lewis’ staff was named to the Pro Bowl in that same 5.5-year period. That was Palmer.
However, there were other guys like Andrew Whitworth, Eric Steinbach, Johnathan Joseph, and Leon Hall who played at a high level in the 2003-08 timeframe. Whitworth went on to become a Hall of Fame-level left tackle as his career wore on.
In Taylor’s time in Cincinnati, Burrow and Chase were the only two players drafted by the team’s current coach to be named to the Pro Bowl, though guys like Logan Wilson, Germaine Pratt, and Tee Higgins have played at a high level.
Of course, Lewis had many more over his 16 seasons, and I’m sure Taylor will have many more. But through the first 5.5 years of Lewis’ tenure, he’s pretty even with Taylor.
Edge: Even
Big Game Record
We all know where this one’s going. Lewis’ Bengals were notorious for choking in big games. They did it in games that could have sent them to the playoffs, and they did it every time they got into the playoffs. Lewis was 0-7 in the playoffs before Mike Brown pulled the plug. But it’s worse than that. Lewis was 3-6 in primetime games in the first 5.5 years of his time with the Bengals, and that includes their home playoff loss in 2005.
Taylor’s Bengals, on the other hand, have fared much better under the lights or on a national stage. Including all of the playoff games, Taylor’s Bengals are 12-7 in prime time. The only anomaly here was the game that was canceled in 2022 against the Bills due to Damar Hamlin’s freak injury.
Edge: Zac Taylor
Division Record
Winning in the NFL isn’t easy, and winning in the AFC North is even tougher. Long regarded as one of the toughest divisions in the league, the AFC North boasts legendary franchises and some of the greatest players ever to take the field.
Lewis went 17-17 through the first five and a half seasons with the Bengals, including their 2005 playoff loss to the Steelers. Taylor has struggled when playing against division opponents. He’s 11-21, including a win over the Ravens in the playoffs. One is bad, and the other is .500, which isn’t going to get things done either.
However, considering that in the early 2000s, the Steelers had a young Ben Roethlisberger, and the Ravens had one of the greatest defenses ever assembled, this one goes to Taylor’s predecessor.
Edge: Marvin Lewis
Conclusion
It’s tough to compare the two teams. Lewis’ Bengals faced Steelers and Ravens teams full of Hall of Fame players on both sides of the ball. He still had more success than failure, and he, of course, went on after the 2010 season to a period of unprecedented success for this franchise, though it didn’t translate to any postseason wins.
Taylor’s tenure has had fewer overall wins but much more success in the playoffs. Due to injuries to Burrow throughout the last few years, he often worked with less than a full deck, but he still has had more ups than downs.
This season really is the first year that Bengals fans are looking at Taylor’s Bengals and are demanding answers. Burrow’s first year was ended by a brutal injury. The team went to the Super Bowl and then the AFC Championship games in the next two seasons, and then Burrow was hampered by a lower leg injury through the first few games of last season before he was lost for the season with another injury, this time to his throwing wrist.
In 2024, they have no such excuse for their slow start. They didn’t do the things they needed to do in the offseason, the defense has played very poorly against good offenses, and, when the defense did show up, the offense went missing in action.
Bengals fans demanded Lewis’ firing long before he and the team parted ways after the 2019 season, and fans are once again calling for ownership to fire the head coach. Considering Taylor has had postseason success, it’s unlikely they’re going to bail on him now, especially when they gave Lewis 16 years.
It’s tough to compare the two teams. The opposition was different, the rules were different, and the most important players, the quarterbacks, on both teams were drastically different. However, considering Taylor’s success when it matters the most, especially his playoff record and how many injuries his star quarterback has had to deal with, I’d say Taylor has the edge.
There is more than one way to skin a cat, though, and a lot more metrics I haven’t even thought of to compare these two.
In this week’s Bengals Reacts Survey, we asked fans if they thought Lewis or Taylor was the better coach. 65% of the fans who voted gave Lewis the edge.
Who do you think was better through the first 5.5 years as head coach of the Bengals? Let us know in the comments section!