Cincinnati Bengals: Is Ryan Finley Playing on Borrowed Time?

Heading into a Week 9 bye, the Bengals benched Andy Dalton for rookie quarterback Ryan Finley. He should retain the starting role for the remainder of the year.

After an 0-8 start, Zac Taylor and the Cincinnati Bengals have decided to make a change at quarterback. Ryan Finley gets the nod after the bye week against a division rival, the Baltimore Ravens.

Some believe this decision should’ve been made two or three weeks prior. The rookie fourth round draft pick deserves time to prove he is the future of the Bengals. He now has it. The former NC State quarterback should be encouraged with by the hopefully soon return of star wideout A.J. Green. These next eight games will be his audition for the future starting role.

Can Finley hold off Tua Tagovailoa or Joe Burrow? Potentially finishing with the first or second overall pick will make it tempting for Cincinnati to select one of the aforementioned college signal-callers. Just how tempting depends on how well Finley does or doesn’t play,

He doesn’t have to come in and take the world by storm like Gardner Minshew. However, he must find ways to get his playmakers the football consistently. Providing a spark and breath of fresh air into one of the league’s most stagnate  offenses is a must. If he does not provide the necessary flashes during this eight game audition, the likelihood of drafting a quarterback high goes up.

The Bengals cannot hesitate to draft a quarterback early in the first round if Finley doesn’t showcase the skills to lead this offense. He isn’t working with much of an offensive line, but that can be said of many quarterbacks. Time will tell if he’s the guy for the job and Bengals fans have something at least mildly interesting to monitor for the rest of this disappointing season.