Tuesday belonged to Joe Burrow, with Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and director of player personnel Duke Tobin also making appearances at the combine.
While it was Burrow’s day, one other name naturally came up — Andy Dalton.
Dalton figures to be the odd man out when the Bengals make Burrow the first pick near the end of April.
Unless the team holds on to him.
Per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com, “Tobin wouldn’t rule out Dalton returning to the club this season.”
But that’s impossible, right? That would mean carrying Dalton as a bridge starter or a backup at a price tag of $17.7 million. It would mean going back on the idea that the Bengals want to do right by Dalton as he leaves the team.
This is likely just posturing in order to not dash trade value when the time comes. Trading Dalton is going to be tricky. Other teams know the Bengals will take Burrow. They also know there isn’t a cent of guaranteed money left on Dalton’s deal, so they could just wait until the Bengals cut him instead of coughing up assets via trade.
Even so, Dalton figures to leave either way. But it’s interesting to hear at this stage of the process the team hasn’t eliminated the idea of his return, even if it’s for the sake of going through the motions to not give away their plans publicly.
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