Andy Dalton's time in Cincinnati is kaput. In the aftermath of the 2020 NFL Draft where the club selected Joe Burrow with the top overall pick, the longtime Bengals quarterback requested his release from the team, which they have since granted. Now, Dalton is free to sign with any club that will have him. It appears like he's at least piqued the interest of a couple of teams in the AFC as Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars are among the teams that have expressed interest in Dalton.
Both of those clubs have second-year quarterbacks currently in-line to be the starter in 2020, but both are interesting landing spot for various reasons. Below, we'll make the case why both New England and Jacksonville make sense for Dalton as he takes this next step in his NFL career.
Why the Jaguars make sense
After trading Nick Foles to the Bears earlier this offseason, the road has been paved for second-year quarterback Gardner Minshew to be the starter in Jacksonville in 2020. That said, Andy Dalton coming in to serve as his backup makes a ton of sense for all parties involved.
There, he'd be reunited with current Jags offensive coordinator Jay Gruden, who was his OC during the most productive years of his tenure with the Bengals. In that time (2011-13), Dalton owned a 30-18 record as the starter and completed nearly 61% of his passes. During their final year together in 2013, Dalton had a career-high 4,293 yards passing to go along with a career-best 33 touchdown passes. The Bengals also went 11-5 and won the AFC North.
Dalton can't get that type of familiarity anywhere else in the league and that should allow him to fit into Jacksonville's system rather seamlessly. For the Jaguars, they'd get a quarterback that is already extremely well-versed in Gruden's offense, which would also help the development of Minshew in what is expected to be an altered offseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the event that Minshew struggles in 2020 and proves to not be the franchise savior the club hopes he'll become, Dalton would be a tremendous alternative to hand the keys of the offense to as he could drive the bus without any speed bumps. After all, he's essentially operating the same offense he's been in for a large chunk of his career. This landing spot also gives Dalton the chance to become the 2020 version of Ryan Tannehill, who took over for Marcus Mariota midway through the season in 2019. It's unlikely that Dalton would have a Cinderella run with the Jags to the AFC championship, given the current state of their roster, but he could secure himself a nice contract if Minshew -- who was benched late last season -- struggles.
Why the Patriots make sense
Dalton-to-New England has been a popular talking-point throughout the offseason once Tom Brady elected to leave the organization to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency. While it appears like second-year quarterback Jarrett Stidham currently has the inside track at the starting job, it's not out of the realm of possibility that New England dips its toes in the Dalton waters.
There's no debating that Dalton's production has fallen off over the past few years, but one could make the case that his struggles have more to do with what was around him in Cincinnati over anything else. What Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels do best is put players in a position to succeed and rarely (if ever) ask them to do more than they are capable of. When Dalton was surrounded by better talent earlier in his career in Cincinnati, his production and the team's success was solid. His turnovers and poor showings in the playoffs may be red flags, but Dalton has the skill set to play within Bill Belichick's system, which is a key factor when talking about other possible free agent quarterbacks New England could bring in to compete.
The Patriots typically have three quarterbacks on the roster over the course of the summer and sometimes carry all three into the regular season. New England did add two undrafted quarterbacks after the virtual festivities came to a close last week, but they're not at the level of Dalton and it's unrealistic to expect either to even leap into the backup conversation. Dalton would certainly increase the level of competition for the starting job over the course of training camp between Stidham and veteran Brian Hoyer.
If he didn't win the starting job out of the gate, he'd at the very least increase the talent level of the quarterback room and provide nine years of starting experience in the league, which could be extremely helpful in Stidham's development. Similar to the Minshew argument above, Dalton could also be great insurance for the Patriots if the Stidham experiment fails.
If Stidham is benched and Dalton found his way to the starting job in Foxborough, there's no better way to fix your image than Bill Belichick sprinkling some of his magic dust on you and having success as the Patriots starter.
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