Bengals offensive coordinator liked progress unit made in OTAs and minicamp

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Bengals first-year offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and first-year head coach Zac Taylor are making sweeping changes to the offense this season, which meant throwing a lot at players on the offensive unit the past couple of months, and Callahan liked the way those players took to those changes.

The Bengals had 10 Organized Team Activity session practices spread over three weeks from May 20-June 6 and the three-day mandatory minicamp practices that wrapped up on Thursday to get that offense installed and then have players be able to rep it enough to get comfortable with what they are doing.

"We installed everything we needed to get in," said Callahan. "There's really not much outstanding between now and training camp. We may add some wrinkles as we review over the summer, but we laid a great foundation and we're getting ready to roll into training camp with a full plate and with a bunch of reps on it and feeling really good where we're at."

It will be the third different offense in as many seasons for Andy Dalton, but the veteran quarterback said one of the reasons so much got installed was how well the new coaching staff taught it.

"The big focus this offseason with all the changes that have happened is to get up to speed on everything we're trying to do," said Dalton. "Just getting into the book and making sure everybody's on the same page, everybody knows exactly what we're trying to accomplish. They've done a great job teaching it. We feel we're very talented. We just have to put it all together."

There certainly is some talent in place. The Bengals started last season 4-1 and at that point they were averaging 30.6 points and 367.6 yards per game, but injuries started to pile up and they averaged only 17.6 points and 284.0 yards per game over the final 11 games.

The success of the new offense will be predicated on running the ball successfully and then doing a lot of play-action passing off of that.

The main reason the Bengals selected left tackle Jonah Williams in the first round of the draft and blocking tight end Drew Sample in the second round is to bolster the running game, which features 2018 AFC rushing champion Joe Mixon.

While players were not allowed to wear pads and contact was not allowed during OTAs and minicamp, teams were allowed to hold 11-on-11 sessions and Callahan said those were enough to show him where runs could be successful and then work on the play-action passes.

"This is the most running game I've done in OTAs (and minicamp) in a long time," said Callahan. "A lot of people don't even bother with it, because it's hard (to simulate the action), but we needed it, because we have to get the scheme put in and get some chemistry working up front and guys working their combinations. We know what would look good without pads on and what wouldn't. We need that work, because we are going to run the football and it's something we're going to strive to be really, really good at. Even without pads I think we have a pretty good feel of where we're headed."

In the three OTA sessions open to the media and the three minicamp practices (all of which were open to the media) the defense seemed to consistently get the better of the offense, but it should be noted that defensive backs can't get their hands on receivers coming off the line of scrimmage so it can be hard to fully evaluate.

Callahan agreed that the defense probably "won" out over the last few weeks, but he said his unit kept making the progress every practice that he was seeking.

"I never felt like we took a step back at any point," said Callahan. "I know that the defense had some good days and gave us some challenges. I felt like we kind of progressed forward every time we came out here. That's a credit to the players. We have a really smart group of guys that retain information really well, and I think that allows us to continue pushing information on them."

Callahan also didn't have a couple of key weapons available either as wide receiver A.J. Green didn't participate in any of the OTA sessions and only participated in position drills during minicamp as he returns from toe surgery and tight end Tyler Eifert watched all of it from the side as he recovers from surgery for a broken ankle.

"I'm very excited to get those guys back and add to the mix of talented players we have," said Callahan. "We've all watched those guys at other places we've been. We've watched A.J. and Tyler and know what they are. To have those guys trending in the right direction going into training camp and a few more weeks to get rest I'm really excited to those guys together and our unit as a whole should be fun."