The Challenge
The Cincinnati Bengals operate in one of the most competitive sporting environments in the world. Every week, coaches process vast amounts of video, data and information to prepare for the next opponent. As football has become increasingly data-driven, the patchwork of whiteboards, tablets and laptops was no longer keeping pace. The Bengals needed a technology solution that could simplify workflows, remove unnecessary friction and make collaboration easier, while giving coaches and players engaging tools to sharpen strategy, accelerate preparation and make more informed game-day decisions.
The Solution
The Bengals partnered with Samsung to modernize coaching and collaboration by installing five Samsung Interactive Displays throughout their training facility. Installed in coaches’ offices and the team’s weight room, the large-format 4K UHD displays combine responsive touch technology, multi-user annotation and wireless screen sharing with the Bengals’ customized internal applications. In this connected coaching environment, coaches can review film, telestrate (draw directly over plays on screen), compare scouting reports and collaborate in real time.
“It's a time-crunched sport. If that process saves us half an hour here and there, and you're saving a couple of hours a week, that's a big difference.”
— Sam Francis, Director of Football Research
The Results
Matching the Bengals’ efficiency and accurate delivery on the field, Samsung’s Interactive Displays have reshaped how the Bengals prepare, communicate and make decisions across football operations. Partnering with Samsung has enabled the Bengals to streamline everything from game planning to coaches’ meetings and NFL Draft preparation. By removing unnecessary steps from daily workflows and enabling coaches to explore new tools through the intuitive technology, Samsung has helped the Bengals create a more connected, digital and dynamic work process where fuller preparation helps lead to better decisions.
About The Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals were founded in 1968 by Paul Brown, a coach and innovator who believed that football is life’s ultimate embodiment of teamwork and competition. The Bengals strive to be a championship football team with a culture built on high standards and competitive hunger. The Bengals connect players, fans and partners into one team to create an enduring legacy in Cincinnati.
The Challenge
The hunt for marginal gains
In the National Football League, Championships aren’t won on Sunday; they’re won from Monday to Saturday. Preparation never stops, and for Cincinnati Bengals coaches, this is exactly how they earn their stripes.
The moment one game finishes, attention immediately turns to the next. Every week, coaches, analysts and scouts work against the clock, processing vast amounts of video and data to prepare players, refine game plans and gain an edge over opponents.
That means reviewing every aspect of an opponent, from alignments and formations to play calling, while simultaneously preparing their own schemes. At the same time, coaches and players must absorb an ever-growing volume of information quickly and accurately.
As football has become increasingly data-driven, the Bengals identified that existing coaching tools were no longer keeping pace. Processes relied on static whiteboards and a fragmented assortment of paper, laptops and tablets that made collaboration cumbersome and complex. The organization needed technology that could remove those friction points and give coaches and players intuitive tools.
Sam Francis, Director of Football Research at the Cincinnati Bengals, experiences those challenges every day. His role spans coaching analytics, game planning and situational strategy, producing weekly reports for coaches, analyzing opponents and supporting decision-making throughout the season.
“We’d have a bunch of tablets in the meeting, and then you’d have to share your screen so you could draw on it. It was a 10-step process just to get to the point where everyone could look at something, share the screen and draw. It was quite difficult. What we needed was a singular, shared canvas where everyone could see the same information, interact with it and collaborate in real time.”
Even simple coaching tasks created unnecessary work, as Francis pointed out: “If you’re walking through an offensive play, you’d have to screenshot it, send it to PowerPoint, put labels on it and then build it into your presentation.”
For Tyler Gross, Director of Football Applications at the Bengals, the challenge is to smooth out the processes of scouting and player personnel. His team develops the Bengals’ custom football applications, bringing together scouting reports, player grades, medical histories and contract information into a single platform used by coaches, scouts and executives.
“Our job is to get the decision-makers in our organization as much information as we can so they can make the best decision in terms of what players we’re going to draft or sign as college free agents,” he said.
Making information available was only part of the challenge; it also needed to be easy to access, simple to collaborate on and fast enough to support the pace of an NFL season.
“As information becomes faster, you’re getting more of it. Keeping track of it and being organized is more important,” said Francis. “It’s a time-crunched sport. If that process saves us half an hour here and there, and you’re saving a couple of hours a week, that’s a big difference.”
The Bengals needed a technology partner that could simplify those workflows while giving the organization a coaching tool capable of evolving alongside its coaches, players and operations staff.
The Solution
The Bengals welcome Samsung to the Jungle
Recognizing Samsung’s expertise in enterprise display technology, the Bengals partnered with Samsung to modernize coaching spaces throughout their front offices and training facility with cutting-edge Samsung Interactive Displays.
Samsung displays were installed across the Bengals’ training facility, including Flip Pro Interactive Displays in coaches’ offices and Direct View LED signage in the team’s weight room, which also doubles as an indoor practice space.
All the displays feature large-format 4K UHD panels to present playbooks, video and player data with exceptional clarity, ensuring every detail remains visible, whether in a weight room, war room or coaches’ office.
The Flip Pro Interactive Displays offer responsive, low-latency touch technology with multi-user annotation, allowing coaches to write directly onto game film, telestrate over plays, highlight assignments and save markups for later review.
“Our mantra is efficient access to actionable information. To be able to save anything you’ve written on the whiteboard and access it in the future is invaluable,” said Francis.
Wireless screen sharing and seamless connectivity with the Bengals’ football applications mean scouting reports, data and video can be brought into collaborative sessions in seconds, replacing static presentations with interactive coaching discussions.
For position group walkthroughs, the displays have become an extension of the practice field.
“What you can do with that big screen is put up the play you’re replicating, or maybe you’re making practice corrections,” explained Francis. “If a mistake was made, we can watch it, walk through what should happen and talk about where guys should have gone versus where they went.”
The displays also support the club’s draft preparation. During Top 30 visits, coaches are able to use the touchscreen to diagram concepts, test football knowledge and work through scenarios naturally with prospective players.
“If coaches want to quiz college players that are about to be drafted when they’re in town, they can do it right there instead of awkwardly leaning over and drawing on a coach’s iPad,” described Gross.
By combining Samsung’s interactive display technology with the Bengals’ custom football applications, coaches have immediate access to the information they need, with tools designed to make collaboration faster, coaching more visual and football decisions more informed.
“With the daily training and preparation environment in pro sports we are seeing how interactive displays can help a franchise in multiple ways — from managing large amounts of data such as scouting reports and high-definition film, to sharing and collaboration on strategy and learnings from training sessions,” said Esther Kim, Head of Integrated Marketing at Samsung Electronics America.
The Technology
Flip Pro Interactive Display
Ideas are brought to life instantly on the Flip Pro with pen and brush modes that deliver a natural, real-world writing experience. Effortless palm erasing, quick palette menus, and instant note-layering allow coaches and teams to draw, annotate, and collaborate seamlessly without missing a beat.
The Results
A picture paints a thousand words
With the addition of Samsung’s Interactive Displays, the Bengals coaching staff have a new playmaker on their side.
The Flip Pro has become an MVP for game planning, brainstorming sessions and NFL Draft preparation, giving coaches a faster, more intuitive way to work with the information that drives football decisions.
“Football operations run around the clock, placing constant demands on the technology our staff relies on every day,” said Jake Kiser, Senior Director of Information Technology at the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Samsung’s products consistently deliver the performance, innovation and reliability we need. They have repeatedly proven they can meet the demands of our organization, making Samsung a trusted partner in supporting these critical environments.”
One of the biggest gains has come from coaches being able to search for specific plays or alignments, display them instantly on the big screen, annotate directly over the top and save those markups for an easy-to-access digital coaching library that coaches may return to throughout the season.
“You can throw whatever you want up there, draw on top of it and then save it. With the old technology, once you erased it, it was gone. Now, you can go back and find it,” said Francis.
The benefits of interactive displays also encourage a more collaborative coaching environment for players to take a more active role in meetings. With the displays’ large canvas and multi-touch capabilities enabling position groups to step up to the screen, draw their own reads and work through concepts together
“What we’ve done a lot with the quarterbacks and some other positions is give players the ability to get up and draw directly on the screen. Instead of huddling around the desk or the telestrator, they can do it right on the display that everybody’s watching. It makes it a much more engaging process for both coaches and players,” described Francis.
Because every discussion may be saved and shared immediately, coaches spend less time documenting and filing ideas after meetings and more time refining them.
“It’s made brainstorming sessions a lot more seamless. At the end of brainstorming, you’re trying to find a way to save whatever you’ve come up with and distribute it. Now we can do it straight from the screen,” Francis said.
The large-format, Direct-View LED displays have also become a crucial addition to one of the most important events on the football calendar. During the NFL Draft, when executives are weighing hundreds of data points against the clock, Samsung’s large and bright screens give coaches and executives a clear, shared view of the Bengals’ custom scouting applications, allowing them to compare prospects, review reports and evaluate information together as decisions unfolded.
“I’ve been in draft meetings for years, and this was the first draft where we introduced the new screens. They immediately drew attention — heads were turning throughout the draft,” explained Gross.
For an NFL team searching for marginal gains, removing friction through robust and intuitive technology solutions makes the difference when Sunday arrives.
“The Bengals and Samsung integration seamlessly replaced old friction points such as analog whiteboards and huddling around small laptop screens. Samsung Display Solutions are actively supporting the staff and athletes dedicated to building a winning franchise,” said Kim.
With Samsung’s interactive display technology, the Bengals have leveled up efficiency across football operations, giving coaches more time to coach, presenting players with a more engaging way to learn and giving decisionmakers the right information in front of them when it matters most.
“We’re asking these guys to do some pretty difficult things out there and by removing the friction from the preparation, it makes it easier for them to go out there and perform on the field,” Francis concluded.
