5. Cincinnati Bengals
This isn’t a “bad” football team from year to year, but there are some funky things stuck in the woodworks in Cincinnati.
Marvin Lewis is one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the league. In fact, only New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has been in charge longer than Lewis, who is sandwiched between “The Hoodie” and New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.
One must ask why the Bengals continue plugging along with Lewis at the helm, however. Since taking over for Dick LeBeau in 2002, Lewis has managed to lose all six of the playoff games the Bengals have reached (all wild-card games).
Further evidence of dysfunction is the franchise’s undying loyalty to quarterback Andy Dalton, who must be one of the worst playoff quarterbacks in league history for someone who has played in more than one game.
In four playoff contests, Dalton has completed just 55.7 percent of his passes for 873 yards with one touchdown and six interceptions for a passer rating of 57.8. These numbers are abominably putrid, yet Cincinnati continues to stick with Dalton, for reasons that defy explanation.