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What has been one of the biggest knocks on Bengals owner Mike Brown in his twenty-plus years as owner/general manager? That his stubborn and frugal ways have prevented his team to become perennial winners. Lately though, Brown appears to be changing his stripes. There's been a revamping of the team's medical staff and scouting department, as well as a change in draft philosophy.
The Cincinnati Bengals will be ditching the old pen and paper for iPads.
In case you were a bit confused initially as to what this means, you weren't alone as it took us a few minutes to digest as well. But, what this announcement means is that the team will be going away from the traditional notebooks and three-ring binders to study playbooks. They're moving into the digital age by dispersing iPads to their players as study tools for the playbooks.
According to Joe Reedy with the Cincinnati Enquirer:
All of the iPads are top-of-the-line models, which can hold 64 gigabytes. About a third of them have cellular and wireless capabilities and retail for $829, while the ones that are wireless only go for $699.
Another benefit of the digital playbook is that players are allowed to access notes from previous games. With paper playbooks, the notes would have been trashed each week. The PlayerLync app, which the Bengals are using, allows players and coaches to write notes and spotlight certain plays using the touchscreen.
The app also determines when there is an update to the playbook or new things to download. The updates and video are also geared specifically to position groups, which means with the push of a button all of the info can go out at one time.
There is only a 38 percent rate of NFL teams doing this, so it's nice to see the Bengals ahead of the curve here. It has to be a pretty neat feeling as a player to be able to use these, though I'm sure that they are the team's property and must be returned if a player is released. Still, it's another bit of news that shows the Bengals are doing things the right way.