Because they've got a new head coach, the Bengals could have started their off-season program on Monday. But new head coach Zac Taylor has a plan, which is why it starts April 9.

The plan has already been in motion for two months, ever since the Bengals signed Taylor the day after Super Bowl. That was a month before they spent in free agency when the club committed about $1 million to Taylor's vision of a renovated Paul Brown Stadium workplace he wants to reflect his culture. When the players show up on the ninth, the walls plan to tell them before Taylor does that a new era is under way.

"A big splash," says Jeff Brickner, the Bengals' sun-up-to-sun-down director of operations. "A lot different than what we've ever had. Guys walking into the locker room (will see it) … Not that the culture is bad here by any means. It's a new feel. It's different. And we're trying to get Zac's message across to the team."

Brickner, who still has the work ethic of growing up on a farm, has noticed Taylor's change-in-the-wind eye for detail. It ranges from small (how the new locker room nameplates and the other signs match the lettering in other parts of the stadium) to big (how he wants the players' locker room entrance to set a tone) and how it fits together.

"He's definitely got a plan," Brickner says. "He wants there to be unity in everything."

With apologies to Hemingway, it's a clean, well-lighted place. Well, it's always been clean. But since the locker room and the coaches are in the basement, it can be dim.

Taylor covets light. Light means energy. Light can also symbolize no gray in communication. That's a big part of Taylor's message that seems to also emphasize pride in the logo, the brand and the history. So the lightning quick crew from the four-generation downtown Cincinnati construction company of JDL Warm figures to get it all wrapped in a bow by early May.

"Those guys are machines," Brickner says.