New Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden will run a version of a West Coast offense in Cincinnati, which will be a major change for the team. Former coordinator Bob Bratkowski ran more of a vertical passing approach.
Gruden says he’s been hard at work putting together the team’s new playbook, and plans to get the completed version to players before a potential March 4 lockout. Wide receiver Jerome Simpson went to meet Gruden to get a head start on learning the system and likes what he sees.
“The only thing I’m going to give away is it’s going to be wide open,” Simpson told Bengals.com. “We’re going to use the personnel and the talent we have. I can see it already and we haven’t run a play yet.”
One change Gruden will make from Bratkowski, according to Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer: He’ll call plays from the sidelines rather than a booth. After a variety of jobs in the NFL (under his brother Jon) to the Arena Fooball League (as a G.M. and a coach) to the UFL last year, Gruden has definitive ideas of how to run a team.
And he shouldn’t need to get up at 3:18 in the morning like his brother to pull it off.
“I’ll do it if I have to, like if I’m behind and have to get my work done,” Gruden told Reedy. ". . . Actually, there’s going to be a lot to cover and I might have to start getting up [at 3 A.M.]”