Bengals break the mold with iPad playbooks

Last season, Mondays were anything but an off day for the Cincinnati Bengals' video staff.

No longer would players only sit down to dissect their Sunday performances in the film room, but they also began wanting to take game footage with them on the go.

Many began utilizing personal tablets to view?film away from team facilities.

Starting in this week's mini-camp, Bengals players were treated to team-issued iPads loaded with film and playbook functionality. The switch eliminates the need for a?conventional playbook, as each of the players will have position-specific content loaded to their device each week.

"They can get stuff to us right away," quarterback Andy?Dalton said. "Once they load it up, it syncs to all our iPads. I'm still going to have a notebook to write stuff down, I'm not going to be writing on that thing, but it's definitely good to have stuff quickly."

The players were issued their tablets at the beginning of this week's mini-camp, but the Bengals' coaching staff has had the opportunity to play around with the software since the end of May.

For the coaches, the transition is all about speed. They will no longer have to wait on copies or cartridges, and will be able to reach out to their team with the tap of a touchscreen.

"They can have their practice video and have an opportunity to get a head start on the next day (with) all the video,"?said head coach Marvin Lewis.?"Sometimes we don't get through all of it in practice and meetings, This gives them a chance to then have that video be immediately downloaded onto their tablets."

The players had to return their new iPads to the team Thursday at the conclusion of mini-camp, but will pick them up again when they report to training camp in the fall.

The Bengals are ahead of the curve in terms of playbook?technology.?Only a small handful of NFL teams had a digital playbook last season.

Lewis resisted an initiative to make the switch last season because the lockout didn't give team personnel enough time to get well enough acquainted with the technology.

This time around, the switch is as much innovation as it is necessity. The quicker access could allow players to be better equipped on the field.

"Our guys are already taking their video and so forth on their iPads," Lewis said. "Now we can download all that stuff immediately."

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