Which team is the best fit for Andy Dalton?

[SmittyBacall]

8 hours ago, rfournier103 said:

Andy Dalton deserved much better than what he got in Cincinnati. If he had any kind of team around him, and if they had any kind of coaching around them, Dalton would have at least found his way into an AFC Championship Game appearance.

Are you not familiar with the Bengals this past decade?

We surrounded Andy with AJ Green, Marvin Jones, Mo Sanu, Tyler Eifert, an exceptionally solid offensive line including Andrew Whitworth, and two first round picks (Kevin Zeitler, Andre Smith), and a perennial top-10 Mike Zimmer defense to fall back on for major stretches of his career. 

Aside from the last 3 years of this decade, supporting cast was never the issue with this team. It was underwhelming QB play that limited us from getting over the hump. We provided Andy with plenty during our 5 consecutive playoff appearances from 2011-2015. There’s a reason we were able to make the playoffs with average to above average QB play all those years. His supporting casts were outstanding.

[Hunter2_1]

Cap space for NE 2020: $1,732,375

[Calamity_Cometh]

1 hour ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Cap space for NE 2020: $1,732,375

After draft signings? After what Winston went for, this could mean something.

[rfournier103]

On 5/1/2020 at 8:25 AM, SmittyBacall said:

Are you not familiar with the Bengals this past decade?

We surrounded Andy with AJ Green, Marvin Jones, Mo Sanu, Tyler Eifert, an exceptionally solid offensive line including Andrew Whitworth, and two first round picks (Kevin Zeitler, Andre Smith), and a perennial top-10 Mike Zimmer defense to fall back on for major stretches of his career. 

Aside from the last 3 years of this decade, supporting cast was never the issue with this team. It was underwhelming QB play that limited us from getting over the hump. We provided Andy with plenty during our 5 consecutive playoff appearances from 2011-2015. There’s a reason we were able to make the playoffs with average to above average QB play all those years. His supporting casts were outstanding.

You'll have to forgive me for not being as familiar with the Bengals as you. You make a good case for those guys. I guess I'm only used to seeing them under-perform in the playoffs, although I always rooted for them to win. I still say Dalton would be the best or at least most successful QB in the AFC East this year if he signed with the Pats.

[SmittyBacall]

13 minutes ago, rfournier103 said:

You'll have to forgive me for not being as familiar with the Bengals as you. You make a good case for those guys. I guess I'm only used to seeing them under-perform in the playoffs, although I always rooted for them to win. I still say Dalton would be the best or at least most successful QB in the AFC East this year if he signed with the Pats.

No problem, dude. I didn’t mean to come on so strong. The thing with the perception of the Bengals is that we’re a small market team few people go out of their way to pay attention to, mostly because we’re rarely on primetime. And when we have had the opportunity to shine on the big scale (MNF, SNF, playoffs, etc.), Marvin Lewis’ Bengals notoriously underperformed and played completely flat. It’s probably the largest blemish on Lewis’ tenure here. Having that as their only access to the Bengals, fans naturally extrapolate those national performances over the entirety of the season and come to (often misinformed) conclusions about the team. 

Like I said earlier, Dalton had a ton of talent around him for a number of years. The 2015 roster especially was arguably the best in football that year (I still assert we would have made the AFC championship had Dalton not been injured). Just try not to let those playoff performances be indicative of the whole picture. There’s more to it than you think.