Bengals: Stars are Aligning for Andy Dalton to Jacksonville
The Cincinnati Bengals remain poised to move on from Andy Dalton and there may be a new suitor after Wednesday’s activity.
There have been narratives dating back to late fall linking longtime Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton to the Patriots if Tom Brady left.
Well, Brady is leaving. However, the Jacksonville Jaguars now need Dalton a lot more than the Patriots do.
Bill Belichick is arguably the greatest coach ever. If he wants to go into 2020 with Jarrett Stidham, Cody Kessler, and possibly a rookie in his quarterback room, he can do that without fear of losing his job.
Alternatively, Jacksonville head coach Doug Marrone and general manager David Caldwell came within an eyelash of getting fired at the end of 2019. Fair or not, they need to win now.
With Nick Foles headed to the Bears, Jacksonville has Gardner Minshew and Josh Dobbs at quarterback. Given that Minshew couldn’t keep Foles on the bench once he got healthy, this front office cannot afford the status quo. They can’t afford to wait on a rookie to develop either.
No one disputes that Dalton can win games in this league, with 70 victories under his belt. Even if it is not much, a player like that has value and it is unlikely that he will just be released. Dalton is exactly the kind of guy the Jags current regime needs to possibly save their jobs.
In addition, former Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jay Gruden now has the same role with the Jaguars. If there is one thing this period of the offseason teaches us every year, it is that coaches like to work with guys they have had before.
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The Bengals can probably get a bit more out of Jacksonville in a Dalton trade than they can New England in terms of draft picks. As much as Cincinnati’s brass seems to want to do right by Dalton, the organization as a whole must come first.