After two straight losses at home in which the team failed to score a touchdown, Cincinnati Bengals have fired their offensive coordinator Ken Zampese. Bengals also announced on their Twitter profile that the quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor will assume offensive coordinator responsibilities effective immediately.
NEWS: #Bengals announce that quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor will assume offensive coordinator responsibilities effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/oaLcMEeIo1
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2017
The start of the 2017 NFL season was one of the worst for Bengals in history. They became the first team since 1939 Philadelphia Eagles not to score a touchdown in two home games at the opening season. Also, Zampese’s firing was the first time in organization’s 50 year history that they changed coordination during the season.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis issued a statement, commenting on the reasons for the change.
“Ken Zampese has done a tremendous job for us for my 15 years here, and I have the utmost respect for Ken as a person and as a coach. But I feel it best for the football team to breathe new life into the offense, and that’s why I am making the change. Bill Lazor has great experience in the league and as a coordinator, and I feel Bill can progress our offense the way we need. We have a lot of talent on offense, and we need to keep working to take full advantage of the personnel we have.“
Ken Zampese started his NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles as their offensive assistant in 1998. He held the same position for Green Bay Packers in 1999 and St. Louis Rams in 2000. After WR coach and passing game coordinator roles with St. Louis Rams, Zampese joined Bengals in 2007 as the team’s quarterbacks coach, holding the position until 2015 when he switched to being Bengals’ offensive coordinator. Zampese didn’t perform well in his new role since he took a team that was 7th in points per game in 2015 and made it 24th ranked team in 2016. Given the poor start of the season, Zampese’s firing might not be the worst of the decisions for Bengals.
