An intriguing rumor making the NFL rounds has the Bengals' head coach, Marvin Lewis, returning to the Baltimore Ravens, a team he once served as D-Coor, to replace the deposed Brian Billick as the lead man in Crapcake City.
Lewis had recently made some noise about wanting a beefed-up scouting/personnel department should he remain relatively happy in Cincinnati. For those who don't know, Bengals' owner Mike (son of Paul) Brown allocates less to these areas---both in numbers and in dollars---than anyone else in the sport. Some theorize the Bengals risk investments in dubious characters because it is so difficult to otherwise locate athletes under the current conditions.
Should the Lewis-to-Baltimore scenario come to pass---and it is very possible Brown would like it to, since he'd be in line for compensation for Lewis' rights from the Ravens---there is the suggestion former Browns (and Chiefs and Redskins and Chargers) head coach Marty Schottenheimer might replace Lewis in the Queen City.
Schottenheimer---as well as his son Brian, currently the Jets' OC---has also been mentioned for Billick's job. Ozzie Newsome heads the Baltimore organization, played for Marty and reportedly is campaigning for him with owner Steve Bisciotti. That owner is less enthralled.
Ironically, Marty and Lewis are both from the same Pennsylvania hometown, a place called McDonald.
The professional marriage of Brown and Marty might well suit the coach on several counts. It is well known Marty wants full control of personnnel, which delivers to Brown a less-expensive multi-tasking solution to his issues. Marty would perform two jobs for little more (relatively speaking) than the price for one.
Marty also runs a tight ship, high on character and motivation. He is a teacher, a fundamentalist, a no-nonsense bare-essentials type who features a running game and a heady, physical, rarely-out-of-position defense. He is a proven winner---though still not yet on the big stage---and a developer of young men who happen to play professional football. He could be expected to clean up the Bengals' deficiencies while optimizing what they already do well. He very well might be the perfect fit for that organization and that city, which has a deeply German core from its origins.
Marty knows the conference and the division. He knows the Northern climate and the peculiarities of Ohio's weather. He'd enjoy the Cinn OL talent and the luxury of having a superb young passer in Carson Palmer. He might even salvage access to mercurial WR Chad Johnson. RB Rudi Johnson would love his arrival and philosophies, as would those aforementioned linemen. What is more, Marty would cure what chronically ails that club defensively.
I apologize for repeatedly sounding like Marty's agent. But the man can coach and this just might be an ideal location for this lifelong molder of men, teams and hokey cliches. And watching him work with the troubled talents affiliated with that ballclub would add an interesting chapter to his sizeable legacy.
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On the subject of one-time Browns landing in appropriate places, watching the Philadephia Eagles try to play offensive football the past few years without legitimate WR threats has caused this writer to think they'd have been the right team to employ both Antonio Bryant and Quincy Morgan, a pair of talented targets who spent 2007 out of football and were once exchanged for one another---when Butch Davis sent the latter to Dallas for the former.
Morgan might've stretched the defense while contributing needed size, with Bryant working the underneath crossing patterns in complement to Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown, neither of whom impressives as NFL starters. Sure there'd be drops, as there always are where Morgan and Bryant are concerned, but they'd make the Eagles a more difficult team to defend and provide frustrated Eagle QB Donovan McNabb some much-needed assistance.
But, as all fans know by now, just because a certain something appears to make sense does not mean it will occur.
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Before leaving the concept of NFL WRs, it was uplifting to note the league-leaders in receptions included unspectacular, lowly-regarded types like Wes Welker, TJ Houshmanzadeh and Derrick Mason---all of whom exceeded 100 catches---as well as Bobby Engram, who just missed triple-digits.
These developments come on the heels of Detroit's Mike Furrey's league-leading 2006 catch season. Furrey had been an undrafted free agent who spent years in the minor leagues of professional football and even played a year at safety for the Rams before Mike Martz brought him along to the Motor City.
These tough-minded types do the dirty work underneath to move the chains, precisely the type of achiever the Browns could stand to add going into next campaign. Such an addition not only would provide Derek Anderson a check-down option, but might encourage him to develop comfort with the shorter passes, an element that could elevate the Oregon State product to yet another level of proficiency.
Credit a few local commentators for recognizing how well Mason might fit the Browns. The same duo wisely recommended Niners' DE Marques Douglass, a former Raven, who is well-schooled in the 3-4 and a strong, positive influence on the field, in the clubhouse and in the community.
Current Eagle (formerly of Auburn and Buffalo) Takeo Spikes might be a superb addition for ILB.
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It was interesting to see that both the Steeler reclamation pieces---CB Ricardo Colclough and C Marvin Philip---were inactive for all Browns' game for which they were eligible this season. There they were joined virtually every week by Savage draftees Travis Wilson, Isaac Sowells and Jerome Harrison, incidentally. Patient development must be the explanation.
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