Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor continues to say that all options are on the table when it comes to Andy Dalton, the team’s quarterback since 2011. Taylor also continues to play coy concerning the team’s first-overall pick, as though anybody on the outside really has any doubt about them doing anything other than drafting Joe Burrow in a couple of weeks.
Taylor already decided last season to bench Dalton, putting a mid-round rookie in the starting lineup for several games until he was just simply so bad that he had to go back to Dalton. Entering his second team with the Bengals, he knows his future is tied to the quarterback position, and he doesn’t appear to believe much in the Red Rifle at all.
Nevertheless, he continues to pay lip service to the idea that they are not necessarily going to trade him. This is contrast to last season, where the Baltimore Ravens were pretty open about the reality that they would be moving Joe Flacco, and it didn’t hurt their ability to find a market for him.
“Every option is on the table out there”, he recently said, transcribed by Josh Alper for Pro Football Talk. “We’re trying to put ourselves in the best position to make sure we’re prepared for next season and we have the best assets we can have. We think the world of Andy, obviously. It’s just kind of a weekly process for us”.
Then again, things have changed. This is not going to be the typical offseason at all. It’s still yet to be determined if we will manage to have a ‘typical’ season. The majority of us are hunkered down for the next good while as we impatiently wait for the coronavirus to run its course, but we still have no true idea what will take place over time.
What we do know is that it’s very unlikely there is any type of on-field offseason until at least the Summer, meaning training camp. Rookies are going to be severely impacted and their readiness limited due to the lack of instruction they will be able to receive.
That could help Dalton survive another season with the Bengals, over concerns that Burrow won’t be ready at the start of the season. Still, depending on what kind of offers they get for him, I believe it’s likely that they would prefer to trade him. I will say, given the circumstances, it would be surprising if they were to release him. They don’t need the cap space, and it would eliminate him in the compensatory pick formula.
