building up this current Bengals team. I know he has yet to achieve anything of note in the post-season, but this current Bengals team has all the ingredients of becoming a potential SB contender. Don't know if this has been discussed much on here, but I thought it should be noted how great of a job Marvin has done in building this current Bengals team. Now with that said, the team is still pretty streaky and a lot of their success moving forward is dependent upon Andy Dalton's development (and the jury's still out on him).

But just looking at their current roster - especially on defense, it's pretty remarkable how quickly this team has developed and positioned itself for success in the future. The one glaring weakness is their OL, but other than that, they are pretty solid overall.

2 guys that exemplify Lewis's ability to develop talent are Vontaze Burfinct and Carlos Dunlap. Both guys were at one point pegged as 1st round talents only to see their draft stock plummet. The knock on Vontaze was that he was slow and uncontrollable. As an undrafted free agent, he's now on pace to put in a pro-bowl caliber season in just his second year. Pretty impressive to say the least. Carlos Dunlap is another guy that was pegged as a top 10 pick at one point. He too was passed on due to character issues. He's been a force force Cinci since his rookie year.

Looking at major contributors on Cinci's roster, it's pretty remarkable how many were either drafted in recent years or were basically cast-offs.

Terrence Newman and Adam (pac-man) Jones are journeymen CB's who have thrived under Lewis's system. Geno Atkins (who hopefully doesn't have a serious knee injury), who has already earned 2 All Pro selections in his first 3 seasons was drafted in 4th round. Georg Iloka was drafted in the 5th round and is already doing a decent job starting at SS as a rookie.

AJ Green, Mohammed Sanu, Marvin Jones are all good to great WR's drafted in recent years. Gresham and Eifert solid TEs. Giovanni Bernard appears to have a bright future.

Not sure how much power and influence Marvin Lewis has in player personnel, but I'd have to imagine he has plenty of say. And when you look at their current roster, it's extremely remarkable how he's built this team.