Fantasy Football 2018: Andy Dalton is being underdrafted

Andy Dalton may seem like a boring fantasy football pick on paper but with his surroundings, he will be a great value pick.

The Cincinnati Bengals have not had much success in the playoffs, not making it out of the Wild Card round since 1990. The team does perform in the regular season, winning the AFC North in two of the last five seasons. One of the reasons why is the consistent performance from quarterback Andy Dalton. Despite that, though, he is going underdrafted in a lot of fantasy football leagues.

Since being drafted, Dalton has been a staple in the Bengals offense. Out of the 112 the Bengals played in the last seven seasons, Dalton missed only three. Over a 16-game span, he averages, 3648 yards, 24 touchdowns and 13 interceptions per season.

He has a couple of 4,200-yard seasons, two more than Marcus Mariota, Jared Goff, Tyrod Taylor and Derek Carr, all of whom are being drafted ahead of Dalton.

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Dalton has some good weapons around him. AJ Green is still a top-10 wide receiver. Tyler Eifert is good but has had his fair share of injuries. Backup tight end Tyler Kroft was second in receiving touchdowns last season. Giovani Bernard was third in receptions last season.

The Bengals bolstered their offensive line, something they struggled with in recent seasons. Dalton was sacked 41 times in 2016 and 39 times in 2017, yet he was still able to play all season.

Dalton and the Bengals get to play the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns twice. All three defenses finished 19th or worse in yards allowed per game. However, the Steelers and Ravens allowed fewer than 20 points per game while the Browns allowed 25.6 per game.

Dalton also benefits from having job security. The Bengals have Matt Barkley, Logan Woodside and Jeff Driskel behind him on the depth chart. Not the best group of backups. Unless Dalton suffers a significant injury, don’t expect him to lose his job to any of these players. Like a couple of other quarterbacks, Dalton is expected to start all 16 games this season.

With how deep the quarterback pool is this season, you should be able to wait until Round 13 (in a 10-team league) to draft Dalton. I would back him up with another quarterback but in one-QB leagues, he is a set-and-forget player.

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Dalton currently has an ADP of 170.0, 27th in ESPN leagues. That is ridiculous. I would rather make the safe pick in Dalton than rather risk my season on the play of Mitch Trubisky, Taylor or Carr. With Green, Bernard, a healthy Eifert and improved offense live, Dalton should finish as a top-15 quarterback.

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