New GM and HC search [Nick Caserio Hired as GM] [David Culley Hired as HC]

[Keith]

Originally Posted by painekiller

I thought they were going to let the the new GM pick the HC, shouldn't he be here for the interview process? This has the look of the team getting the Rooney rule out of the way.

Agreed. Let's get a GM and HC on the same page from the jump. Rooney rule was my initial thought too, but I suppose it isn't a poor idea for the Texans to go through a "practice" round of interviewing themselves. Maybe help them query and parse the actual candidates when they interview them?

Originally Posted by Warren

I wouldn't want Marvin Lewis but I think he is a competent NFL head coach. He never did anything in the playoffs but deserves some credit for getting more out of the notoriously cheap Bengals franchise than anybody else has in a long time.

My initial reaction too was to be repulsed by the thought of Lewis. And I'm not trying to convince anyone otherwise here, least of all me, but Lewis had a winning record as HC of the Bengals at 131-122-3. That's like 16 years, and the last 3 had win totals of just 6, 7, and 6. He produced winning teams with such a woeful franchise and ownership. Was also the DC for that stout Ravens defense that won SB XXXV and set a record for fewest points allowed.

Now for the bad - his teams went 0-7 in the playoffs, all wild card games. Six wild card losses over a seven year span actually. Feels very Oiler-esque from their late 80s-early 90s run, but unlike a few of those Oilers squads, how many of those losses did Lewis clearly have the better talent on the field? He entered as the home team with a division championship a few times, but I'm not sure he lost with clearly better talent. His QB for most of those seasons was Andy Dalton, not a HoF guy like Warren Moon.

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

I'm not sure what there is about the Lions or the Bengals that would make any NFL executive say "I wish we were like those guys".

I probably said the same thing about Bill Belichick after his stint with the Browns though.