Let’s backtrack a little.
Around mid-February 2011, Cincinnati’s wide receivers coach at the time, Mike Sheppard, departed for Jacksonville to become their quarterbacks coach. Cincinnati conducted a week-long search for a replacement, coming up with Eagles quarterbacks coach and (momentary) assistant offensive coordinator, James Urban. By this point in the offseason, the NFL was roughly three weeks away from their four-month long NFL lockout. Jay Gruden, and his staff, could not teach his players the terminology, philosophy, or schemes he was implementing until mid-to-late July, when a new Collective Bargaining Agreement lifted the lockout. In addition, Cincinnati had just drafted a new quarterback and wide receiver in Andy Dalton and A.