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Cincinnati Bengals – Andy Dalton
MIAMI GARDENS, FL – OCTOBER 31: Andy Dalton #14 of the Cincinnati Bengals attempts to pass the ball against the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium on October 31, 2013 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
NFL.com’s ‘Around the League’ crew created a saying this season about Andy Dalton: “AD – After Dalton”. If a quarterback is labeled “AD” it means that he is worse than Andy Dalton, and therefore more of a hindrance than a help to his team. The suggestion here is that Andy Dalton is your prototypical NFL average quarterback. He isn’t a problem for the most part, but he is also not the reason you win games.
It looks like that saying has become redundant as quickly as it started; for the most part, Andy Dalton is looking like a top 10 quarterback right now.
Granted, a couple of games have been less than stellar for the young quarterback. But considering his body of work over the entire season, he’s still playing at a very high level.
He made Marvin Jones look like a superstar against the Jets last week. He gets Gio Bernard involved with smart check downs, and he still knows how to find his star man AJ Green when he needs to. This Bengals team is rounding into a dangerous, balanced offence; and it is all because of Dalton’s much improved play.
So while Geno Atkins and AJ Green are still playing like machines pretending to be men, Andrew Whitworth is blocking everything and Vontaze Burfict is abusing running backs like tackling dummies, it is Andy Dalton who has been the biggest difference maker on this team.
He has earned that MVP title at the halfway mark.
