DEAL AGREED: Raiders has signed ex-Bengals HC to replace Antonio Pierce…
DEAL AGREED: Raiders has signed ex-Bengals HC to replace Antonio Pierce
Ex-Bengals HC Marvin Lewis returns with Raiders aiming to aid Antonio Pierce: ‘Hopefully I can benefit AP’
The 2024 Las Vegas Raiders season will be Marvin Lewis’s return to the NFL as head coach.
The seasoned former head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals said on Wednesday that helping head coach Antonio Pierce was the driving force for his comeback.
“I think just the opportunity to really assist AP,” Lewis, the Raiders assistant head coach, said Wednesday when asked what appealed to him in taking the role. “From the time that I first met him and had the opportunity to coach him, and then the opportunity to kind of reunite again later on at Arizona State — so kind of was in a similar role at one point there with him there as well, being in support of him, I just have been really impressed all the time with him. Back to 2002 with the now-Commanders, I guess. So, it’s just this opportunity.”
From 1996 to 2001, Lewis oversaw the Baltimore Ravens’ defense, leading the team to an unprecedented 2000 defense that was crucial to the team’s victory in Super Bowl XXXV. Following his time with the Ravens, he was Washington’s DC for one season in 2002 before taking a position as head coach of the Bengals. Lewis coached a 24-year-old Pierce throughout the 2002 season. Though Pierce’s finest playing seasons were still ahead of him, he left an obvious mark on Lewis.
Lewis remarked, “I knew he was driven as a player.”
After a 16-season tenure with the Bengals that finished with a 131-122-3 record and seven postseason trips, Lewis last year with the team. Since then, he has not been an NFL coach. In the autumns that followed, Lewis worked alongside Pierce on the Arizona State staff from 2018 to 2021.
appointed in 2022 as the Raiders linebackers coach, Pierce took over as temporary head coach in 2023 after Josh McDaniels was fired, and in 2024 he was appointed as the head coach full-time. Pierce relied on previous head coaches like Lewis, Tom Coughlin, and Adam Gase throughout his 2023 tenure.
“He’s not stuck on himself, that way,” Lewis said. “He wants to hear other people’s point of views, and so forth, that way. And that’s good, but he has a great direction, himself, as a leader. He takes responsibility for providing the direction and reinforcing it every day.”
In his rise up the coaching ranks, Lewis learned from Bill Cowher, Brian Billick and Steve Spurrier. He’s hoping to provide a similar mentorship to Pierce.
“I think those were helpful to me when I got the opportunity to become a head coach,” Lewis said, “and hopefully I can help benefit AP, as well, that way.”
Lewis resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, so the close-ish proximity to Las Vegas helped to make the decision easier. Overall, it wasn’t really something he sought out.
“It came pretty organically,” he said. “I’m excited about it. I had a couple other people inquire at times about my interest in doing something similar.”
