Andy Dalton hopes other teams were watching.
Dalton hasn’t pulled any punches about the reality of his situation with the Cincinnati Bengals — he’s likely getting replaced by Joe Burrow.
While the Bengals might like to have him in a sort of mentor role, Dalton has remained adamant he wants to start in the NFL. He told the media after Week 17 he hopes teams see his last two weeks of tape.
“If I’m not here you want other teams to see what I can do,” Dalton said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “You want to put good tape out there. Hopefully they saw the last couple of weeks how things went.”
From a box-score perspective, Dalton has been fine. He’s technically thrown five touchdowns against one interception over his last two games (never mind the one score and four picks the week prior). The problem is four of his scores against Miami came late in a comeback and he didn’t hit the 200-yard mark in the win over Cleveland.
Really, Dalton wasn’t going to change another team’s mind over the course of two meaningless games. He’s got a lengthy career on film as it is. What’s telling here is another reminder he wants out the door if he isn’t given a chance to start in Cincinnati.
Whether another team views him as a starter at all makes for one of the most interesting offseason storylines out there.
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