The Bengals newest wide receivers coach, James Urban, comes from a Philadelphia Eagles organization that ran a variation of the West Coast offense. One of the key items of note here is that even though the team's newest offensive coordinator Jay Gruden calls it the west coast offense, it's not exactly the same variation as Andy Reid's version. Jay's brother Jon studied with Reid under Green Bay Packer's head coach Mike Holmgren, a prodigy of Bill Walsh in San Francisco. Jon Gruden took that west coast offense, added his own variations and adapted it to this own team; the version of the West Coast that Jay Gruden studied under with his brother. Now Jay is likely adding his own variations to it, adjusting it based on the personnel he has to play with on this year's roster.
And yet, even though it's not the same version of the Eagle's west coast offense, Urban knows enough of the terminology to get a head start to get the team's younger receivers like Jerome Simpson, Andre Caldwell and Jordan Shipley up acquainted with the system.
With A.J. Green agreeing to a four-year deal Thursday morning, he'll have a new receiver to groom; a receiver that vastly improves the potential talent level with a core of impressive young receivers. And Urban is excited about it.
"I can't wait to see the great physical abilities we saw," Urban said. "The great playmaking abilities. Can't wait to see that on a daily basis. Having conversations this whole offseason with Jay with what we envision with him, I can't wait to see how he runs a shallow cross and how does that fit. I've got about 50 concepts I want to see with him. Love seeing that total receiver."