"I think the thing is to really be able to spend time on the concepts of football that are important to us and breaking things down – offense, defense, special teams. It might be 5-on-5, 4-on-4 type things. Really for the coaches to emphasize those and break down the gray area. Without pads you are unable to be physical and those things so it is more of the mental stuff. It’s important to do that and work on some of the things that we think were important after the season last year for guys to work on and improve. It gets the young guys incorporated in better and some of the new guys like James (Harrison) on defense."

"I’ve been impressed with how they are studying and working hard. When they mess up, you can tell it hurts them and they don’t want to do it again," Gruden said. "Those two guys are focused on what they can bring to the team and they are going to be very good players."

"I thought they went very good. It’s been very productive. When you have 10 draft picks there’s a lot of opportunity to get those guys involved and see them get incorporated in the offense and defense and then a little bit of special teams. To a man I’ve been pleased with what they’ve come out here and done. Now most will be here this week and get infused with the rest of the team."

Today on DSS, we will be joined by @whodeyweekly to recap the #Bengals draft picks and look ahead to next season! Any questions for Nick???

"As you know, we’ve kind of filled what were in my mind perceived open chairs, so (today) we have an opportunity to really fill in our roster with some guys who will come in here and compete. That’s the great thing. If you look at the guys we’ve added in the fourth round, fifth round, sixth round, seventh round the last years, there’s a guy that pops up as a very legitimate player for us."

"If that happens it would be great. I have all the respect in the world for James. He's a guy who I think would be great in this locker room. He's a no nonsense guy. Really a dedicated, fierce competitor. He's one of those guys that sets the tone with the way he plays the game. I think it would be great to have him in our locker room if that happens but we'll wait and see. I'd be very excited about it."

That is all

Bengals OC Jay Gruden brushed off concerns over Andy Dalton's late-season fade, expressing confidence in him as the quarterback of the future. "I think Andy is the guy. If you compare his two-year stats to Drew Brees and the other great quarterbacks now, I think you'd be surprised what he's done his first two years," Gruden said. "Obviously he has shown some flaws he has to work on, but every other quarterback in their first two years in the league has shown that." While Dalton entered the league with doubts about his physical limitations, it's a growing concern that he's grown more hesitant and regressed mentally. Jan 8 - 5:56 PM

Raiders are picking #3 next year, it will be nice having a high second round pick.

Lets get some more cross team posts put up. Similar to the Blackmon posts when we played them.