Will Jay Gruden Bring Better Clock Management?

What do we know of Jay Gruden? He was good in the AFL as a player and as a coach, describing his offense as a form of the West Coast. He played college ball in Louisville. Oh, and he has an older brother. Jon Gruden, the former Buccaneers and Raiders head coach, now a member of ESPN's Monday Night Football crew, spoke about his brother to the Bengals Mothership.

"He's a good football man. He's a big-picture guy who can tie things together. He worked very closely with me in Tampa. He helped me put the game plan together during the week and he was the guy I talked to on the phone during the game, helping me with adjustments, advising me on play calls and the clock."

The clock. Oh thank god for the clock. And we're super, super, super serious here. In the past two years, Carson Palmer and the offense has been called for 16 delay of game penalties with only three declined by the defense. Cincinnati was also forced to call timeouts on multiple occasions to avoid being penalized because the play was likely taking so much time getting to the players.

Dating back to 2001, the Bengals have committed 57 delay of game penalties -- seven were declined -- for 245 yards lost. Note: this doesn't differentiate the occasional delay of game to get more yards for a punt. Hopefully with better clock management, the team can save those precious timeouts rather than sacrificing one midway through the first quarter to avoid a five-year penalty.