Why not keep Andy as a backup?

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Pual Daugherty article about keeping Dalton

Quote:The Bengals suggesting publicly that they could keep Andy Dalton is simply BS (Basic Smokescreen), a means of persuading any team interested in cherry-picking Dalton that it will have to give up something, anything to get him. Of course, no team believes that, so Dalton is still a Bengal.

“Now that the draft’s over, we’ll let the dust settle and talk through it,” Zac Taylor said.

Ah, c’mon.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton (14) smiles as he heads for the locker room after the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 17 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns at Paul Brown Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. The Bengals finished their 2019 campaign with a 33-23 win over the Browns.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton (14) smiles as he heads for the locker room after the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 17 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns at Paul Brown Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. The Bengals finished their 2019 campaign with a 33-23 win over the Browns.

There’s only one reason to keep the nine-year veteran Dalton and only one rational way to do it. Declare him Joe Burrow’s backup and pay him something less than half of the $17.7 million he’s owed.

If Andy Dalton agreed to that, he’d also agree to wear a red KICK ME jersey in practice.

The trade deadline represented the Bengals best chance to get something for Dalton. They overestimated his value. They infamously suggested they weren’t in the business of making other teams better. In March, the abundance of free-agent QBs made it a buyer’s market. When the musical chairs settled, Dalton was an odd man out.

Teams know the Bengals can’t afford to pay their estranged QB what he’s owed. Teams know, too, that the Bengals would prefer not to have Dalton on a roster of players they want desperately to rally around Burrow. The Jaguars and possibly the Patriots are buzzards circling the carcass.

Dalton already was making bargain-bin money. He has never done anything in the NFL but be a starting quarterback. By Bengals standards, he did a remarkably good job. The longevity of QBs being what it is, he’s barely in his prime.

Pride goeth before the fall, but not even a modest, humble Dalton would return to a clipboard and a half-full wallet. Would he?

Stop with any notion that Saint Joe and Dalton would compete for the job. Can you imagine the boos if Dalton started the home opener and was anything less than perfect?

This franchise can’t afford another season like last season. It ranked 31st in the league in attendance, ahead of only the L.A. Chargers, who played in a 25,000-seat soccer stadium in a Los Angeles suburb. The Bengals cannot risk toying with the patience of what remains of their fan base.

Any notion that Dalton could “groom’’ Burrow needs to disappear. Burrow needs the same situation Dalton enjoyed. He’s going to be looking over his shoulder anyway. Literally, given the offensive line he’s inheriting. Figuratively, his mind needs to be clear. And if there ever is a training camp, Burrow needs to own the reps, not share them.

Besides what sort of competition would it be if everyone inside and outside of PBS wanted Burrow to win?

Dalton isn’t Jon Kitna mentoring Carson Palmer. Dalton is better than Kitna was, by miles. There is a determination in the building to begin distancing this group of players from the last group. Taylor’s total obsession with character and culture can’t bloom fully if the team’s most important player is a holdover from the previous regime.

It’s not that Andy Dalton’s character was anything less than high. It’s that Joe Burrow is Zac Taylor’s version. And that is important to Zac Taylor.

(I wonder what Marvin Lewis has made of the rampant implications that his teams’ players were somehow lacking character and a winning culture. But we digress.)

“I feel like we're starting something new,” said offensive lineman Hakeem Adeniji, the sixth-round pick. “I think in a few years here you're going to see the tide's turned. I think we're going to be a team that shocks somebody.”

That’s a pretty good representation of the thinking in the building. The collective self-assurance in the coaching offices was not diminished by 2-14. They might be right. For now, they have a quarterback dilemma.

I still think the Patriots will be interested in Dalton. Dalton is smart and exceptional at reading defenses. There is nothing Bill Belichick could throw at Dalton that he couldn’t master. He is the sort of Me-2nd player that Belichick likes and demands.

But the Bengals will have to cut Dalton first.

Regardless, Andy Dalton shouldn’t be in stripes. It’s not good for Dalton or Burrow or the future of anyone involved. All Basic Smokescreen aside.

https://amp.cincinnati.com/amp/3030235001