CINCINNATI — During the first day of Bengals minicamp, the offense ran through new plays.
A day later, some of them were gone.
Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor decided they didn't look as good on the field as they did in his overhauled play book.
"You keep moving, keep evolving," Lazor said Wednesday before practice. "That's what we're in the process of doing."
Cincinnati's offense is a work in progress, a year after it finished last in the league for the first time in franchise history.
Lazor was elevated to interim coordinator after Ken Zampese was fired two games into the season. He was retained and given discretion to redesign the playbook.
Players say the terminology and some of the play designs have changed significantly. Fans and the rest of the league won't start noticing the differences until the season begins. For now, the staff is trying to get the offense into a final form.
Lazor decided on a major overhaul after the Bengals' 7-9 finish, their second straight losing season. The offense was bad all-around, with Andy Dalton getting little time to throw and the running backs finding little room to run behind a struggling offensive line.
"I don't know if we have enough time to talk about what didn't go the way we wanted," Lazor said. "We've got to focus on the now."
One emphasis in minicamp this week was setting a standard for practice and encouraging players to hold each other accountable.
"We just keep putting it in front of them: 'This is our standard. This is what we want to establish and what we expect in practice,' and continue to put it on the players to help hold each other accountable. To me, the greatest thing we've done as a group right now is set the standard."
Lazor has noticed a different atmosphere since the new playbook was installed.
"I think it got a lot of the players' attention, just got people going," he said.
