Does Andy Dalton deserve some mercy for all of his postseason failures?
It’s hard for some people to realize where they have come from. In the lives of some who reach a new level in their life they often times forget about the tragedies of the past that made them who they are. The San Francisco 49ers are a perfect example of this when they lost one of the best coaches in football, Jim Harbaugh, to the Michigan Wolverines because of their pride.
The Niners ability to forget how awful they were before Harbaugh’s arrival in San Francisco is one of the reasons why he’s no longer apart of their franchise.
For the Cincinnati Bengals it seems like they too are starting to forget how terrible they were back in the last decade (2001-10) before their starting quarterback, Andy Dalton, came into town.
During that time period the Bengals were one of the laughing stocks of the league and had a losing record five times, while only finishing with a winning record twice. The two times they did manage to finish with a winning record the Bengals made it to the playoffs, but yet still couldn’t advance in the postseason tournament.
People can hate all they want on Dalton, but he’s one of the best young quarterbacks in the league and would start on most NFL rosters. We’ve seen all of the postseason failures of his career but isn’t now the perfect time to start cutting Dalton some slack? The Bengals are a good team and he’s a big part of that. Are we being way too harsh on him?
Remember how terrible the Dallas Cowboys looked in December and January before this year? Their starting quarterback Tony Romo would choke in big games and wasn’t a primetime performer. After Romo’s Sunday performance against the Detroit Lions where he completed 19-of-31 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns, the narrative in his career arc has completely shifted from a choker to a winner, and all it took was a post season victory.
Due to the fact that Romo finally had a breakthrough in his career getting a rare playoff victory, all of his not clutch talk has left his shoulders and moved on to Dalton’s. After the Cowboys impending loss in the playoffs (it’s definitely going to happen), we may soon be able to spot Romo in the offseason somewhere in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico relaxing on a beach sipping on cerveza and basking in the fact that he’s no longer under the microscope.
Before we even start with the Dalton’s not clutch talk, let’s get a brief look at everything he’s done since arriving in Cincinnati. Next to Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Andrew Luck he’s only one of four quarterbacks that have passed for at least 20 touchdowns in his first three seasons.
In addition he’s only one of four quarterbacks in league history with Luck, Manning and Cam Newton, that has thrown for more than 3,000 yards in his first three seasons and that’s just individual stats.
To the Cincinnati Bengals organization Dalton has been a beacon of hope and has helped been a part of the solution to the Bengals previous woes.
He’s one of the most important reasons the Bengals have had such a culture shift since 2011 when he first started playing for their team. Dalton along with the Baltimore Ravens starting quarterback Joe Flacco, is one of two quarterbacks in the Super Bowl Era to lead their team to a postseason in each of their first four seasons.
In addition, he hasn’t missed a start in his career with the Bengals and also has the best winning percentage of any Bengals quarterback.
The last legitimate threat at quarterback that the Bengals had was Boomer Esiason. The former all-pro quarterback is the only Most Valuable Player in the Bengals franchise history. Since Esiason’s retirement in 1997 there hasn’t been one person to play quarterback for the Bengals that can compare to Dalton as a passer.
At the same time for all of the success that Dalton’s had we all can look at the numbers and see that Dalton has a bit of a tough time in the postseason. In four games he’s thrown for one touchdown and six interceptions, while his Bengals teams are winless and have gotten outscored 103-43.
The good news is that Dalton keeps making the playoffs every season and the Bengals, similar to the Cowboys, will eventually breakthrough to the next round. It’s only a matter of time, next year he’ll be 28 years old and will still have the advantage of having time on his side to figure it out.
Bengals fans, don’t rush the process. The team is in a good situation even if it the goals weren’t completely met.
Next: Where do the Bengals rank among all 32 NFL teams all-time?