Marvin Lewis has every intention to return to the Bengals' sideline next season despite a report to the contrary this week.
Cincinnati's longtime coach addressed the issue briefly in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio on Thursday morning, saying "I'll be back in 2017," before shutting down further discussion of the topic.
Lewis told the Cincinnati Enquirer earlier this month that he planned to return if asked and clearly was upset the matter was being raised again. But after former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley said on his Washington radio show that he had heard Lewis would retire following this season, the coach was obliged to deal with it.
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After declining to directly reiterate his stance during a news conference Wednesday, Lewis explained why he went that route during his SiriusXM appearance.
"I just didn’t want to make a headline. I don’t need to make headlines. I don’t want to see my name in a headline," he said. "Someone had already very unresponsibly made a headline, and I wasn’t going to give any credibility to that."
Though the Bengals are a disappointing 5-9-1 heading into Sunday's season finale and remain winless (0-7) in playoff games under Lewis, it's difficult to envision the typically conservative front office making a change.
While Lewis has yet to get the team over the hump in January, he has taken a laughingstock of a franchise that had failed to post a winning record for 12 consecutive seasons before his arrival and turned it into a perennial contender in the challenging AFC North.
Lewis is 117-110-3 in 14 seasons, and only Bill Belichick in New England has a longer tenure with his team among current NFL head coaches.
