The Cincinnati Bengals lost offensive coordinator Hue Jackson on Wednesday after Jackson agreed to take on the mammoth project that is fixing the Cleveland Browns. Jackson's departure for a head coaching gig makes three Marvin Lewis assistants to make the leap from Bengals coordinator to team lead in the past few seasons. Mike Zimmer, the former Cincinnati defensive coordinator, just took the Minnesota Vikings to the playoffs, as did Jackson's predecessor as Bengals offensive coordinator and current Washington Redskins head coach, Jay Gruden.
With Jackson gone, Lewis' standing with the team seems as solid as ever, despite a 0-7 playoff record. He's taken the team to the postseason five years running, so it certainly makes sense that owner Mike Brown doesn't want to pull the plug. But Lewis won't stay in place forever, especially not if he keeps following strong regular seasons with one-and-done playoff appearances, and it sounds very much like both Lewis and Brown are aware of that.
A report from Michael Silver of Sports Illustrated, offered up in the wake of the news of Jackson's move to Cleveland, suggests that Lewis actually approached Jackson about a potential "succession plan" in an effort to keep him from leaving.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis approached Hue with a last-ditch proposal to keep him in Cinci, with succession plan. They are very close...
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) January 13, 2016
What that means is, the 57-year-old Lewis would likely promise Jackson that he'd relinquish the top spot at some point in the next couple of seasons - or after the team won a Super Bowl.
But it sure sounds like Jackson, determined not to miss out on another head coaching opportunity, jumped at the chance to take over control of a team, even before having had a chance to vet all of his possible landing spots (ahem, New York, ahem, ahem).
In the end, it's not surprising that Lewis would try to keep a top subordinate like Jackson from leaving, especially after the strides franchise quarterback Andy Dalton was able to take under Jackson's tutelage this season, but it is extremely intriguing that Lewis was reportedly willing to go far enough as to put a succession plan in place in order to do so.
