Winning matters: Marvin Lewis-Andy Dalton duo get one more chance with the Cincinnati Bengals

Jim Owczarski | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption WATCH: Lewis, Dalton get another shot to win Marvin Lewis and Andy Dalton enter their eighth year together, but they are still chasing playoff success, and their time may now be running short.

“I have to go in and make it different. That’s all. You know what I mean? You’re talking about a nebulous situation, but that’s my job, that’s my goal, is to make it better and give us the opportunity (to win a Super Bowl).” – Marvin Lewis, Jan. 3, 2018.

There was a window, a moment, to seize change.

Marvin Lewis’ contract was expiring in January, and the Cincinnati Bengals had a choice. Was it time to shake things up with a Pro Bowl quarterback still in his prime? The Bengals also owned the No. 12 overall draft pick, and with a large class of new quarterbacks about to enter the league, should the club look to a future without Andy Dalton?

The club elected to stay the course. But just how difficult is the road to Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta for the pair?

It’s one that’s never been traveled.

This marks the eighth season of the Lewis-Dalton era, tying them for the sixth-longest run in the National Football League as a head coach and starting quarterback combination. That fact in and of itself is rare, but not unusual.

What they hope to do in 2018, however, would be historic. Since the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, no coach-quarterback combination has achieved their first playoff victory this late in their tenure together.

This is their last stand – 2018 and 2019. That is the length of Lewis’ deal, and Dalton signed through 2020 and the age of 34.

If they succeed legacies can be rewritten, futures stabilized.

But if it doesn’t happen, if a third straight losing season is chiseled in the record books and a top 10 pick looms in 2019, it could signal a sea change at Paul Brown Stadium.

“We all gotta strive for the same thing,” Lewis said of winning a championship.

“And it’s he and I.”

Bengals Marvin Lewis & Andy Dalton: Historical perspective Marvin Lewis and Andy Dalton are entering their eighth season with the Bengals. If they win their first playoff game in 2018, it would be historic.

More: Daugherty: Can Andy Dalton reach the 'elevation' the Cincinnati Bengals need?

More: Cincinnati Bengals' Vontaze Burfict, Ryan Hewitt to miss start of training camp

More: Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert will start training camp on PUP

More: Report: Former Bengals cornerback Adam 'Pacman' Jones to try out for Cleveland Browns

More: First month free: Subscribe to unlimited digital access to Cincinnati.com

Get the latest Bengals news. Download our app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play for Android users.

The mountain

“Everybody wants to win the Super Bowl. Obviously. That’s what we all want to do. We’re going to make our best effort to do that. But it starts with simply winning each and every game, one by one by one. It’s a simple concept. It’s a difficult concept.” – Bengals owner/president Mike Brown, Jan. 19, 2018.

Simply, Mike Brown felt Marvin Lewis gave his organization the best chance to win its first Lombardi Trophy, which is why he re-signed the head coach for two more years in January. That decision also kept together one of the longest tenured coach-quarterback duos in the NFL:

1. Bill Belichick/Tom Brady (18)

2. Sean Payton/Drew Brees (13*)

3.Mike Tomlin/Ben Roethlisberger (12)

t4. Mike McCarthy/Aaron Rodgers (11)

t4. John Harbaugh/Joe Flacco (11)

t6. Lewis/Dalton (8)

t6. Ron Rivera/Cam Newton (8)

8. Pete Carroll/Russell Wilson (7)

9. Dan Quinn/Matt Ryan (4)

10. Four entering their third season.

11. Five entering their second season.

12. Fourteen entering their first season.

*Payton was suspended for one season.

What clearly separates the top nine from Lewis and Dalton are playoff victories and at least one Super Bowl appearance.

It is the mountain Lewis and Dalton must climb.

Since 1970, there have been 24 coach-quarterback combinations that lasted a minimum of eight seasons. And of the 11 coach-quarterback combinations to last at least eight years since free agency began in 1992, only Lewis and Carson Palmer never won at least one playoff game.

Few can speak to what Lewis and Dalton are trying to do more than Bobby Hebert, who quarterbacked the New Orleans Saints to relevance under head coach Jim Mora from 1986-89 and 1991-92.

He remembers how the goodwill of winning games and just reaching the postseason wanes. After a certain point, that’s not good enough. The pressure changes.

“(It’s) to win a championship,” Hebert said. “Not just to win. You can be part of a winning program but you gotta win a championship.”

The coach

“I’m going to work my tail off for the city of Cincinnati to win a championship. I think that’s important. The fans deserve that.” – Marvin Lewis, Jan. 3, 2018.

Lewis’ 13-18-1 record following five straight playoff appearances and a sense of an “all in” push in 2016 has made the last two years more than disappointing, and it made his return somewhat surprising.

Speculation surrounding a separation, however, came from external influences. He never formally said he wanted to leave, only that “complications” had to be worked out. It took a matter of days for those to be smoothed over, and he was back.

Which once again shines a light on what Lewis has, and has not, accomplished.

He enters 2018 as the 26th winningest coach in NFL history, yet his first victory of the season will break his tie with Jim Mora as the most successful coach to have never won a playoff game.

So, if Lewis is going to get where he wants to go in 2018 and 2019, there had to be some revisions in his working relationship with Dalton, amendments the head coach had to author. It is an important step for a head coach to take when he’s been with a quarterback for such a long time.

“You want to keep it fresh,” said Kansas City coach Andy Reid, who worked for a decade with Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia and for five years with Alex Smith with the Chiefs.

“I have been around some great players, some Hall of Fame players, and what they want is they want that one little nugget that makes them greater than they already are.”

This is why Lewis retained Bill Lazor as offensive coordinator and hired quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt: He had to push his quarterback.

“We have to be better,” Lewis said in January. “I have to do better than I’ve been obviously.”

While Lazor may not be as bombastic as Jay Gruden and Hue Jackson, the coordinators Dalton had the most success with, Lewis recognized Lazor possesses the same personality traits in terms of challenging his quarterback. Van Pelt, Aaron Rodgers’ former position coach in Green Bay, will help guide those challenges.

If there is some benefit to Lewis’ long history, it’s that he’s been in this unique position before: He had Carson Palmer for eight seasons also.

Since the merger, only Don Shula (Bob Griese, Dan Marino), Tom Landry (Roger Staubach, Danny White), Coughlin (Brunell, Eli Manning) and Lewis have had the good fortune to have two starters for at least eight years.

To date, Lewis is the only coach of that group to have not at least advanced to a conference championship game with either quarterback.

“When you just look at the game of football, who gets wins and losses? The head coach and the quarterback,” Dalton said. “You just automatically get joined together. Marvin’s been great for me. I’ve loved having him as our coach. He’s a great coach. He wouldn’t be in the same place in a long time if he wasn’t.

“I do think we’re kind of joined in this.”

The quarterback

“When you’re in that quarterback room, that’s what you want to be. You want to get on that list. Which means getting your team to the Super Bowl. So you’ve just got to keep that in mind and not be satisfied with anything until you get there.” – Bill Lazor, Jan. 25, 2018.

Brady. Brees. Roethlisberger. Rodgers.

Andy Dalton wants to add his name to that iconic ledger. The Bengals, unequivocally, believe he can get there.

“Oh, no doubt,” Lewis said firmly. “No doubt.”

Outside Paul Brown Stadium, such belief raises incredulous eyebrows. Yet there are those who believe the Bengals are correct in staying the course with Dalton.

“It’s hard to find a quarterback,” Hebert said. “Bengals fans could say well, we want someone else besides Andy Dalton. Well, OK, then who? You can have a fantasy world and pick the quarterback you want, but there’s just not enough quality, young, starting quarterbacks that you can count on year in and year out.”

The team can count on Dalton for quite a bit. First and foremost, he wins. More than many fans who clamor for his ouster want to acknowledge. Dalton’s career 57.7 winning percentage rates better than Cam Newton (57.4), Drew Brees (57.2), Philip Rivers (55.2), Eli Manning (51.9), Matthew Stafford (48) and Kirk Cousins (45.6).

Also, those around him have success – and get paid. Jay Gruden and Hue Jackson are head coaches. A.J. Green, Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu netted $132.5 million in new contracts. Tyler Eifert, Giovani Bernard and Ryan Hewitt pulled in close to $30 million. Offensive linemen Cling Boling, Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler also received hefty deals.

But over the last two seasons, Green, Bernard and Eifert suffered season-ending injuries. Jones, Sanu, Zeitler and Whitworth left, and their replacements haven’t equaled that production.

“When you’re the quarterback, you’re going to take the bullets you’re going to get the glory,” said Jon Gruden, while still working as Monday Night Football’s analyst. “You’re just going to be opened up to criticism. But I know a lot of people that like Dalton a lot."

No one in the NFL summarily discounts the five playoff appearances he helped the team make, either (Dalton missed the fifth game due to injury). In fact, those trips are one more than Rivera-Newton have made and just one fewer than Harbaugh-Flacco and Payton-Brees.

But at 0-4 in his four postseason starts, Dalton stands alone in recent history.

No active starting quarterback has made that many playoff trips without one victory and since free agency began, no other quarterback has had that many opportunities with the same coach and come up short.

Perhaps Dalton and the Bengals’ best chance to have avoided such ignominy was in 2015, which ended prematurely for him due to a broken thumb. But that year, and his Pro Bowl campaign of 2016, proved to the Bengals that Dalton can play at a championship level.

“I’ve seen it often,” Mike Brown said. “He has my confidence. I think he can do the job if we give him enough to do the job with.

“He needs a good horse to ride and we’re going to try to get him a stronger horse. I think we can. And when we do I think you’ll see him run a faster race.”

That job needs to be done in the postseason, however.

“He needs – like the Bengals – he needs a couple signature wins to really prove his point,” Gruden acknowledged.

Which is why there was an emphasis on rehabilitating the offense, from the coaches to the system to the rest of the roster. But there is a firm, internal belief that there is more to Dalton than what’s been seen as well. Lazor and Van Pelt are going to challenge Dalton to show it.

“Part of what you do to make a guy better is push him past his limits,” Lazor said. “If you’re always practicing what Andy does well, then Andy will continue to be what he is. If I, in an individual period or in practice, put him in a tough situation that pushes his limits of what he thinks he can do, he’s got a chance to become a better player.”

It’s a mission the quarterback had readily accepted. He knows that to join contemporaries Cam Newton, Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson in the “top quarterback” conversation, he must reach the same levels they have.

“It’s not about making the playoffs,” Dalton said. “Everybody understands that. Obviously, the big knock on us is we haven’t won the playoff game. So we’ve got to earn our way back there, but when we get there we’ve got to be playing our best.

“You play this game to win Super Bowls, to win championships.”

What can happen

“I have to just do what I think puts our team in the best position to win. Even if it is a short-term issue with our fans. I will tell you that it's all going to play out on the field here. And if we win, it will be great. If we don’t, you’ll be right back here asking why.” – Mike Brown, Jan. 19, 2018.

Neither Dalton nor Lewis will be satisfied with winning a single playoff game. Both speak of winning a Super Bowl.

A championship would likely mean Dalton and the team begin talks on a contract extension and his place as the franchise’s greatest quarterback would be cemented. For Lewis, it would complete the job he took in 2003, one many felt was hopeless following a 55-137 record from 1991-2002.

Winning, quite simply, salves many wounds.

Can they do it?

One Hall of Famer believes their track record of winning is enough for a firm answer.

“Yes,” said former Buffalo and Indianapolis general manager Bill Polian. “Yes.”

The common thought within the league is if you’re good enough to win nine to 12 games in the regular season, you’re good enough to win thereafter.

For years, Polian heard how he had to break up the combination Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning because they kept falling short of a Super Bowl. After all, Dungy was fired after six seasons and four playoff trips in Tampa Bay. Polian remained steadfast, and Dungy and Manning rewarded that faith with a title in 2009.

“That’s an alternative to the ‘off with their heads’ that your colleagues in the media like to espouse,” said Polian, now an analyst for ESPN. “The opposite of that is we’ve got good people here, they have a good plan, we need to get better in certain areas but we’re headed in the right direction with the right people.”

Polian said it’s a simple calculus when it comes to making the decision on whether or not to replace a head coach or quarterback in his prime:

“If you’re going to get rid of everybody, who are you going to replace them with?” he said. “The usual answer is ‘anybody would be better.’ That’s ignorant. That’s a very ignorant position to take.”

But can Lewis and Dalton withstand a third straight losing season?

For Polian, that’s where a front office has to separate quarterback from coach.

“The two are independent of one another,” he said. “This is not college. These guys are paid. They stay in the program. Just because you bring in a new coach doesn’t mean that he brings in a new broom. That’s an ownership decision. Or a new general manager for that matter.”

Historically, front offices do make a choice between the coach or the quarterback. But it usually occurs over a five-year period, not eight or more. And while such moves prove Polian’s assertion that decisions on Lewis and Dalton’s futures are individual stones to cast, at this juncture the ripples resulting from either will flow into the other.

And this is due to their contracts.

A reminder: Lewis said he is signed through 2019 and Dalton is under contract through 2020, so a third straight early trip home in January could grease the wheels of change.

One option, should the club find itself with a top 10 pick in 2019, would be drafting a quarterback and allowing the rookie to sit behind Dalton before entertaining trade offers. See Alex Smith and Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City last year, or the Brett Favre-Rodgers changing of the guard in Green Bay.

Another option would strictly be a change at head coach. But that would likely signal another significant change in offense and, potentially, bring in a different opinion on Dalton’s future.

Such scenarios would be uncomfortable for Lewis and Dalton, but transitions from these longtime coach-quarterback combinations are rarely tidy if the end result isn’t a Super Bowl.

Dalton, if he chooses, can play close to another decade in some capacity. Lewis has set no timetable on retirement. And while no playoff advancement this season or the next may force those ends to come elsewhere, neither will look beyond what is in front of them.

“The goal is to win now,” Dalton said. “It’s why you play this game. You don’t go in saying well, we’re going to try and win in four years.

“We’re going to win now.”