Bengals looking to make changes

Cincinnati will make many roster changes, but coach Marvin Lewis will be back.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Another four-win season jolted the Cincinnati Bengals back to reality.

In coach Marvin Lewis’ sixth season, the Bengals found themselves back in the bad old days. They started 0-8. They finished last in the league in offense. They headed into the offseason with a mess on their hands.

Any chance of change?

There are going to be a lot of changes on the roster, particularly on offense. The Bengals have a lot of decisions to make about their running backs, their receivers and their offensive line. Do they trade Chad Ocho Cinco after a subpar season? Do they use their franchise tag on receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Do they try to keep running back Cedric Benson?

In that sense, change is coming. But what about the bigger issues, the ones that have held the franchise back for 18 years? Is owner Mike Brown going to hire a general manager, turn the team over to someone with a respected football background, and let Lewis have more say in what goes on?

Of course not.

In the most important ways, there will be no significant change.

While other underachieving teams fired their coaches and general managers on Monday, the Bengals went about planning for next year. Lewis has two years left on his contract and is working for a boss who doesn’t want to pay someone to do nothing.

Fire the general manager? The Bengals don’t even have one. Brown makes the decisions.

So, there’s no reason to expect significant change in an organization that has produced only one winning season in the last 18 years. What about more superficial change that gets the team back to at least being competitive? That could happen.

During their descent to 4-11-1, the Bengals showed improvement on defense that was more than offset by the offense’s implosion. The defense finished 12th overall, while the offense came in last in the league.