The Cincinnati Bengals need to look at moving on from quarterback Andy Dalton in the near future.
Andy Dalton has been the Cincinnati Bengals’ starting quarterback since his rookie year in 2011, and has yet to win a playoff game with them. They fell to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday 26-10, and it was yet another disappointment in a career that has been full of major disappointments so far. Dalton is currently 0-4 in the playoffs, and he hasn’t shown the ability to play consistently good football yet in the regular season either.
The Bengals have seen him throw for 99 touchdowns and 66 interceptions, which isn’t the type of ratio that most starting quarterbacks look to have.
Now after losing his fourth straight postseason game, the question arises whether or not the Bengals should begin looking at other options at the quarterback position.
Dalton has potential, but what he has shown so far during his career hasn’t been all that impressive. His best season came in 2013, when he threw for 4,293 yards and 33 touchdowns to go along with 20 interceptions.
Obviously the interceptions are a major concern, and he still wasn’t able to lead his team to a postseason win. No matter the talent that has surrounding him including A.J. Green, he has yet to figure out how to win big games. The Bengals can’t afford to keep wasting time hoping that he’ll shake the problems that he has had, and it’s time for them to look at other options.
It isn’t likely that they will move on from him this offseason, but they could start working their way to that point. Jay Cutler could be on the trade market, and the Bengals would be very wise to check in on what it would take for them to acquire him. They could also look at the NFL Draft and pick up a young quarterback, but throwing a rookie to the wolves doesn’t always work very well.
Cincinnati has the talent to make a run in the AFC, but they need a legitimate franchise quarterback in order to get to that point. Dalton is a serviceable starter, but he is nowhere near the type of quarterback that can take his team to a Super Bowl.
At 27 years of age, Dalton simply isn’t able to pass off his struggles as a lack of experience or being a young player. He has had plenty of time to figure things out and still hasn’t shown the type of improvement that is needed from a franchise quarterback.
Now it is time to look at which quarterbacks could be potential replacements for Dalton if the Bengals decide to go a different route.
They could go for a veteran rather than trying to draft a replacement, and there are a few different options available. Brian Hoyer, Jake Locker, and a trade for Jay Cutler make a lot of sense for the Bengals. Locker has a lot of talent, but a plethora of injury problems have plagued his career from the start.
Hoyer would be a very intriguing option for the Bengals after his strong season in Cleveland, but he did fall apart a bit down the stretch of the season. Cutler on the other hand ended up being benched in favor of Jimmy Clausen at the end of the season, and could find himself on the trade block this offseason.
That being said, there are other quarterback options in the NFL Draft that would make some sense for them as well. Dak Prescott, Brett Hundley, Bryce Petty, and Garrett Grayson are all potential quarterback options that they could target.
At this point in time it is too early to be going into which player they should target, but it is clear that they need to begin looking to move on from Dalton. He hasn’t shown the improvement that they needed to say, and he hasn’t come close to being the leader that they needed him to be.
There have been plenty of chances for Dalton to prove himself to the Bengals and the league, but he has yet to do that. No team has the comfort of waiting around to see if he can reach his full potential. Dalton has been a major failure, and it’s time that the Bengals cut their losses and strongly consider moving on from him.