A few questions to ponder

[BengalChris]

(07-06-2015, 03:50 AM)Tim_B Wrote: I think you have to remember all of the injuries the Bengals had down the stretch. Both Pittsburgh games Dalton played very well IMO, and the only one you could say he played bad in the last 5 games of the season is the Tampa Bay game IMO. The Bengals in general play better the 2nd half of the season. The last 3 years the Bengals are 17-7 in the last 8 games of the season. I'm pretty new here and I see a lot of Dalton bashing on theses boards, and I do think that he deserves a good amount of his criticisms, but I honestly think that a lot of people undervalue Dalton. I don't think he's elite, but he's slightly above average (I think he's around ~13ish best QB). People just need to remember that the past 4 years this has been a defensive team. Most of our talent has been on the defensive side of the ball, so our offense needs to lean on the defense to win those big games. Most of the time the defense falls short, and our offense has been having to pick up the slack causing a lot of bad plays.

My point is that he didn't improve in 2014 and he didn't. He also didn't improve as the year went on, which is what you would expect if the QB practiced with those same guys all year long. I'm not bashing him. I'm just saying he didn't improve in 2014 and few will say he did.

If you go back to my original post, I pin a lot on the coaching.

I place Dalton in th 14-16 range of QBs. The inconsistencies are what bring him down. I know he's capable of having really nice games. I also know that he's liable to have some more really bad ones and they seem to come from no where. Whenever people call him elite or try to compare his game with all time greats, I just post the highlights of the Cleveland game and that's pretty much proof he doesn't belong in such comparisons. At least not until he wins a SB (whenever that may be).

QBs I rank ahead of Dalton are: Brady, P Manning, Rivers, Rodgers, Rothlesburger, Brees, Flacco, Romo, Luck, Wilson, E Manning, Tannihill, Ryan.

Guys I rank around Dalton are: Stafford, Newton, Foles (had a better 2013 than Dalton did), Palmer.

Up and coming young guys who could overtake Dalton in the next couple off years: Derek Carr (a couple of years away give how badly manned the Raiders are), Bridgewater (solid, talented team around him, kind of like what Dalton has had).

Gues I rank below Dalton are: Smith, Manuel, Keapernick, RGIII, Sanchez, Vick (now that he's aged), Orton, Hoyer, etc.