Cincinnati Bengals
Before hiring Zac Taylor, the Bengals gave Marvin Lewis 16 years to turn around this bumbling franchise. While he never won in the playoffs (0-7), he won fairly consistently with some losing seasons sprinkled in.
Taylor? He went 2-14 his first season and is already 0-2 this year even with No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Burrow at quarterback. While the Bengals have lost both games this year by no more than 5 points, the defense still looks atrocious while the offensive line is woeful.
While it’s not ideal for a young quarterback to go through multiple head coaches so early in his career, Taylor’s looking in over his head. Bieniemy’s already showed he can work wonders with one young quarterback; can he do it again?
Detroit Lions
This hire would encompass more than just a head coaching change as the team’s Executive VP of Football Operations/General Manager, Bob Quinn, fired the team’s last head coach, Jim Caldwell, to bring in the current one, Matt Patricia, with whom Quinn had a prior working relationship from his days with the Patriots.
It hasn’t gone well. Caldwell got canned after going 36-28 over four seasons with 3 winning campaigns and 2 trips to the playoffs, but he missed the postseason after a 9-7 season in 2017. Since, Patricia has led the Lions to a 9-24-1 record.
The Lions are 0-2 and underachieving this season, but they’ve still got the veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford under contract with a somewhat solid team around him. Patricia doesn’t look like the answer. Bieniemy very well could be.