NY Jets complete interview with longtime Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis

The NY Jets have completed an interview with former NFL coach Marvin Lewis.

The NY Jets continue to do their due diligence in bringing in as many potential head coach candidates as possible. And on Thursday, they officially completed their second interview of the coaching cycle — this time with Marvin Lewis.

The Jets announced on Twitter that they had interviewed the longtime Cincinnati Bengals head coach on Thursday. Lewis joins Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy as the second candidate the Jets have interviewed thus far.

But unlike Bieniemy, Lewis was not among the individuals that the Jets reportedly planned to interview. This announcement came as somewhat of a surprise.

Lewis is, of course, best known for his 16-year stint with the Bengals where he served as the team’s head coach from 2003 all the way until 2018. During his time in Cincinnati, he found a great deal of success, but never could quite get over the hump.

The 62-year-old was named the AP Coach of the Year in 2009 and won a total of four AFC North titles with the Bengals. He helped lead the organization to seven postseason berths including five straight from 2011 to 2016.

Unfortunately, his greatest downfall came with his lack of playoff success having gone 0-7 in postseason games in his career. Lewis garnered a reputation for consistently falling short in big games and he was never able to escape that legacy.

Still, with a career 131-122-3 record, Lewis has plenty of NFL experienced and he managed to find more success than most. It’s not shocking that teams remain interested in him.

The NY Jets aren’t the only team to have interviewed Marvin Lewis

The Jets are the third team to interview Lewis this offseason joining the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions. Lewis returned to college after leaving the Bengals joining the Arizona State football program as a special advisor.

The school promoted him to the role of co-defensive coordinator in 2020 and that remains his current position right now. But with interest from three NFL teams — and possibly more — he could be set to return to the league in 2021.

The Jets remain interested in hiring a “CEO-type” head coach and Lewis fits the bill given his NFL experience and highly-praised leadership qualities.

He’s far from the most exciting potential candidate out there, but the Jets might seriously consider hiring Lewis when all is said and done.