No new contract talks for Marvin Lewis yet, but Bengals get iPads

Lewis hasn't heard anything about a new deal. But he's got iPads! (Getty Images)

Marvin Lewis heads into 2012 with one year left on his contract. Considering he made the playoffs last season and the Bengals are on the rise, you'd think Cincy might want to extend him.

But Lewis said recently that he's got no new news when it comes to an extension talk.

"I don't know the answer to that," Lewis said, per Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, when asked if he'd have a new extension before training camp.

Reedy also reports that Lewis hasn't really even spoken to owner Mike Brown about the possibility of signing another extension. You may recall that when the Bengals and Lewis were negotiating a contract before the lockout, it sure seemed like Lewis was gone from Cincy. Then some funky negotiating happened, with Lewis reportedly walking away from the talks.

Lewis eventually signed a two-year deal to stay on with Cincy and, as everyone understood it, picked up a lot more personnel power in the process. When he went out and made the playoffs with a rookie-filled offense anyway, it stood to reason that he'd get a new deal from Cincy.

He hasn't and he doesn't have any idea, apparently, if he will. Perhaps Brown's waiting to see if the Bengals take a step back this year. Or perhaps he's just too busy trying to figure out how to turn on his new iPad. Brown just shelled out "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to get the players new playbook-friendly iPads, something Lewis told Bengals Executive VP Katie Blackburn he didn't want to do last season.

"I kind of declined to do it," Lewis said, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. "There was not the opportunity to play with it. The coaches have played with them since the end of May, since before Memorial Day, as far as the new apparatus. The players have had them for this last week. We gave them to them last Thursday, so they've had the opportunity to view them and fool with them over the weekend and then coming back this week. So far, so good. I like the feedback. For a guy to watch what they're watching on the screen clearly (and) watch in front of them, too, if they want and be able to take notes on it, it's very user-friendly."

Yes, I'm aware that the idea of the Bengals being not entirely that behind the curve on getting players iPads is almost as bizarre as my non-sequitur of a title. But, despite what you might think, these two things are connected.

You see, the Bengals have turned the corner (we think). They're making the right trades, they're drafting the right players, and they're clearly investing in their team from different angles.

Which is what makes it so odd that Brown hasn't gotten some sort of contract in front of Lewis, whose only real recent mistake is making some bad challenges in the playoffs.

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