news from OTAs

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(05-30-2021, 05:00 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I really don't think it's fair at all to question Andy Dalton's leadership abilities.  And fwiw, this is coming from someone that wasn't always his biggest supporter.

First of all, we see so very little of what is actually going on.  We don't see what's going on in practice, or in the locker room, or in the weight room, or in the film room, or anything else.  Even though we watch the games and are able to see the huddle, we aren't able to hear the words spoken.  We don't get to see the examples set, we don't get to see much of hard work being done.  We know so very little about the relationships these players develop, both on and off the field.

So how can we possibly know for sure what kind of leader someone is?  Because they're not animated?  Because they don't yell at people?  Cuz that to me seems silly.  There's a ton of different ways to lead.  I can think of plenty of great QB's who weren't fiery, or intense, or had swag, or any number of others bs terms fans and media people attatch to the players.

All I know about Andy Dalton is this: I've never heard a single bad thing a teammate has said about him.  Not one.  Not in college, not in the Pros, not in his 10+ years playing this game.

What I have heard is that he was a hard worker, he was supportive, he's charitable, he's generally a good person.  Some of these things I've even seen myself, with my own eyes, in addition to hearing these descriptions second hand.

So I'm sorry.  I think it's bs when people pretend to know what kind of leader Andy Dalton is.  I mean, if you want to critique his play then that's one thing, that's fair.  But how can you pretend to know that he was a terrible leader?  By what measurement are you coming to this conclusion?

Fwiw, My thinking above can be directly applied to Carson Palmer as well.  Never heard a single bad thing about him from a coach or a teammate.  Much like Andy, I've never heard him throw a teammate under the bus or publicly rip a coach.  All I've heard from people in the know is good things.

I really wish we would stop trying to overanalyze this stuff.  This guy isn't a leader because he didn't have swag, this guy is a great leader because he does have swag, or because he shows more emotion.  This is all bs that is clueless speculation.  Unless you hear about a guy not having a great work ethic, or he doesn't know the playbook, or he's involved in off the field distractions, or teammates call him out, what do you really know?

Just because a guy doesn't win a Superbowl doesn't mean he's a shitty leader, and just because he does doesn't mean he's a good one either.  You can strictly judge this off of W/L and how animated the guy is the 60 minutes you see him in his 40 hour work week.

/endrant

Great post.  Dalton might not have given the fans the most spine-tingling chills from some pre-game hype speech, but his team responded to him.  Right from the start, he was a steely-eyed tough SOB.  I will never forget that pass back to him from Sanu.  The DB kind of got caught in no man's land between making a play on the ball and hitting Dalton, but Dalton made a contested catch (a pretty damn athletic one, too) and spun off the guy for a TD. 

I have a lot of good memories of Dalton and I don't put him as the sole reason they never advanced in the playoffs.  Just like Piggy throwing up a 21 QB rating but WINNING the Super Bowl, this is the ultimate team game.  

I will always wonder what could have been in 2015 when the Bengals took Denver to OT IN DENVER with a backup QB, only to see Denver go on and win the Super Bowl.  

Dalton deserves far more praise than criticism, but I understand the human nature is to put all the praise of all the criticism on the QB.  

First class guy, did a lot for the city, and won far more games than Palmer ever did.  Wish him nothing but success (except when they play the Bengals week 2).