Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton isn’t doing himself or the team many favors these days.
Since returning to the starting lineup, Dalton has won a game in three attempts, yes, but he’s also thrown two touchdowns against five interceptions and hasn’t completed better than 60 percent of his passes in each, all while the offensive line play in front of him improves.
This was especially discouraging in both losses because of pick-sixes. In a 27-19 loss to Clevland, Dalton threw a questionable ball and gifted the opposition seven points. In the loss to New England, Dalton didn’t just throw four interceptions, one of them went back for a score.
And while Zac Taylor tried to defend Dalton under the guise of being aggressive (what else would he say?), at least two of the picks were woefully off-target and easy for the defense.
Dalton is, unfortunately, showing 31 other teams something important — how he plays without A.J. Green.
This is a rather huge problem. The Bengals are clearly headed toward the top pick in the draft and Joe Burrow. In a perfect world, they then dangle Dalton on the trade market to see what they can get in return. Dalton had wanted a trade before the deadline after he got benched — and presumably, a starting quarterback still gets a decent return.
Duron Harmon on Andy Dalton targeting Stephon Gilmore, who had 2 INTs and 4 PDs"
"I was on the sideline and was like, ‘does he know you’re an All-Pro corner, best cornerback in the league?’ I guess not."
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) December 15, 2019
Before this disaster of a stretch, Dalton might’ve fetched a good price on the open market, with other teams simply believing a bad environment derailed his numbers. Teams make mistakes all the time in this league, and chief among those is thinking their environment can fix a player.
Bengals fans should know better than most how silly NFL teams can get about quarterbacks — remember the haul in the Carson Palmer trade? Even if one argues that had special circumstances, this is a league where teams are still putting up millions to roster Joe Flaccos and Ryan Fitzpatricks.
It would be unfortunate to settle for a compensatory pick for Dalton’s eventual departure. But it increasingly looks as if that’s where things are headed as he continues to tank value as this lost season concludes.
For a team with as many needs as the Bengals, it’d be nice to draft a top quarterback and get a nice immediate pick back as a way to assist other spots on the depth chart. But when things go this awry, nothing really goes according to plan.
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