Ask Cincinnati Bengals quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese about his early experience with Andy Dalton and he mimics the biting of his nails and uses phrases such as “nerve wracking” and “on edge.”

But Zampese’s reaction has nothing to do with Dalton’s play last year as a rookie. Instead he’s referring to the uneasy wait the coaching staff had to endure at the 2011 NFL Draft.

After selecting wide receiver A.J. Green fourth overall, it would be 31 picks and 24 hours before the Bengals could exhale and put Dalton in stripes.

“He was the guy we were hoping would be available because of the background and the time we spent with him,” Zampese said, referring to the five visits Bengals coaches made to Texas in advance of the draft. “He was the guy we really, really liked for obvious reasons. The accountability is through the roof. The leadership ability is at a high level. His football intelligence is way up there. And it’s never about him, it’s about the group.”

What followed the coaches’ uneasy wait was the best rookie quarterback season in franchise history, and one of the best ever in the NFL as Dalton broke records, led the Bengals to the playoffs and earned a trip to the Pro Bowl.

But as well as Dalton performed last year, completing 58 percent of his passes for 3,398 yards with 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, he still was a rookie learning on the fly without benefit of any offseason work or minicamps due to the lockout.

He is the first to admit the learning curve needs to be straighter this year because expectations are higher.

“A lot more is expected of me now, and I expect a lot more of myself,” Dalton said. “That’s what I want. I want to be a top player in this league, and to get to that point, there has to be a lot asked of you.”

A lot has been asked – and a lot delivered – since Dalton won his first starting job as a senior at Katy High School, leading his team to a 14-1 record and the Texas 5A state championship. Following a reshirt freshman year at Texas Christian University, he was a four-year starter who went 42-7 and broke every school passing record, many of which had been held by Pro Football Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh.

Dalton led TCU to three bowl victories, including the 2011 Rose Bowl, and was the offensive MVP in all of them.

In Cincinnati he fell into what, for him, was a perfect situation because of Carson Palmer’s decision to retire rather than play another season with the Bengals.

“There weren’t any impediments (last year),” Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said. “There wasn’t a veteran. There wasn’t a competition. So that made it easy.

“He had a great year for a rookie, but some of the mistakes he makes, we’ve got to eliminate those,” Gruden added.

Those mistakes, such as a three-interception game in a 31-24 loss at Baltimore, were one of the reasons the Bengals went 0-8 against teams that finished 2011 with a winning record.

“For me personally, to come in and start right away and go to the playoffs and then get a chance to go to the Pro Bowl, I mean there’s so many great things that happened,” Dalton said. “But there’s lots of areas where I can improve.

“You can always try to be more efficient than the last game,” he continued. “Find checkdowns, find ways to get a little higher completion percentage and things like that. There’s different things like that which will help the offense keep the ball moving and give us a better chance to win games.”

Even though the Bengals are still a day away from their season opener in Baltimore on Monday Night Football, Dalton’s teammates said they have already seen growth and improvement.

“I’ve seen big growth,” said Green, who also made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. “He’s more vocal and he has more command of this offense. He gets mad if he misses a throw by a little.”

Aiding in Dalton’s development is the fact the Bengals have surrounded him with talent. While some young quarterbacks are put in position to be the offense, Dalton is simply asked to manage it. In addition to Green, he has a Pro Bowl tight end in Jermaine Gresham and a tailback with no fumbles and four playoff games, including a Super Bowl, on his resume in BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Plus there is a talented group of young, reliable receivers who should, at the very least, be able to keep defenses from dedicating their gameplans to covering Green.

All of that means Dalton doesn’t have to worry about trying to do too much.

“He just has to be himself,” head coach Marvin Lewis said. “We don’t have any doubts about anything he does. He just has to go into his second season and play like he did last year. He doesn’t have to force anything. He just has to let the game come to him.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Dalton became the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to start as many as eight games and throw as many as 20 touchdown passes.

And history has shown that quarterbacks who start at least eight games as a rookie tend to have a big jump in numbers their sophomore seasons. But Zampese said Dalton has the talent and makeup to not only make a big leap this year, but for many seasons to come.

“I’m not putting a cap on him in any way,” Zampese said. “He has the ability to do some amazing things. I expect an increase, especially his understanding and his ability to execute our plays and his accuracy. Those things should be better. Where it goes, we’ll see.”