Andy Dalton is getting benched.

Finley takes over after the bye. I doubt it will make that much of a difference.

Bengals bench Andy Dalton for rookie Ryan Finley - NFL.com

Might as well see what you have with the backup and there are a couple of more hours before the trade deadline so I may go ahead and trade Dalton if you are benching him. That to me says he is done in Cincinnati.

Very surprised. Even though I believe this has been Dalton's worst season, I didn't think they would bench him.

Trade him. If you are going to bench him, trade him.

Very surprised. Even though I believe this has been Dalton's worst season, I didn't think they would bench him.

 

Trade him. If you are going to bench him, trade him.

We are in lockstep here VoR.

I’m sure they’re trying to see what Finley’s got so they know what to do in the draft.

Dalton to the Bears?

On his birthday.

You have to do this. You need to know what you have in Ryan Finley. Dalton was never going to be here next year so you need to know what you have in Finley.

Very surprised. Even though I believe this has been Dalton's worst season, I didn't think they would bench him.

 

Trade him. If you are going to bench him, trade him.

With the previous coaching staff you would be right. However, with the writing on the wall that the Bengals will be picking top 3. Then with Dalton's contract up after next season, you weren't going to pay him between 20 to 25 million to keep him. So might as well see what you have in Finley. Chances are he won't do much either, but maybe he surprises and balls out. Then the Bengals could use their top 3 pick on a Young, or trade back for more picks. So this is something that had to happen.

With that said I would have waited until after the trade deadline to let that leak out. This way they could have tried to trade him first before teams knew they were giving up on him.

A few things come to my mind...

I wish we could've seen what the offense would've been like once Green is back. That is going to have a ripple effect across the board...Boyd going back to being a #2, who's not double teamed...Mixon running without facing a stacked box, etc. Finley, obviously, is going to be the one who gets to "enjoy" that. I just hope he's able to take advantage of it, by recognizing the coverages.

Second, I sure hope Taylor is planning to alter his play calling. I just can't see any good outcome of having Finley throwing the ball 52 times a game. Going back to the previous point, maybe they'll be able to check down into more running plays, if AJ is there to stretch the D.

And thirdly, @futurecoach, we absolutely 100% agree on this...if you were going to bench him, there was no reason to announce that before the trade deadline passed. Not that you're likely to see much of a return on him anyway...but, now you're trading a "backup", not a "starter". You've already showed everyone else your hand, so you've already devalued your chips. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I don't think this is going to have much of a difference on the field. Andy Dalton was not the problem.

If you look at his career here, I would consider him maybe the 3rd Greatest QB in Bengals history.

I don't think this is going to have much of a difference on the field. Andy Dalton was not the problem.

 

If you look at his career here, I would consider him maybe the 3rd Greatest QB in Bengals history.

You are correct Dalton was not the main problem the last few years. The issue is he was pretty much the main problem when they did have one of the most talented teams in the NFL his first 5 years. Which stats back up even though he was surrounded with talent he played poorly those years against teams with winning records, prime time games, and playoff games. So it is one of those things if people want to give him credit for making the playoffs those years when the talent around him was the main reason not him. Then people need to give him the blame when they suck when the talent is not around him. Or it is more like something in the middle of they made the playoffs those years really because of the team not him. Then also they suck the last few years because of the team not him. Which fits what he is, which is average.

Statistical wise he will go down as the 3rd greatest qb in Bengals history. Imo he is the 4th best Bengal qb in Bengal history. I would still take Palmer over him every day. Give Palmer what Dalton had his 5 years of a talented offense and a good defense, and this team probably does more than what they did with Dalton.

You are correct Dalton was not the main problem the last few years. The issue is he was pretty much the main problem when they did have one of the most talented teams in the NFL his first 5 years. Which stats back up even though he was surrounded with talent he played poorly those years against teams with winning records, prime time games, and playoff games. So it is one of those things if people want to give him credit for making the playoffs those years when the talent around him was the main reason not him. Then people need to give him the blame when they suck when the talent is not around him. Or it is more like something in the middle of they made the playoffs those years really because of the team not him. Then also they suck the last few years because of the team not him. Which fits what he is, which is average.

 

Statistical wise he will go down as the 3rd greatest qb in Bengals history. Imo he is the 4th best Bengal qb in Bengal history. I would still take Palmer over him every day. Give Palmer what Dalton had his 5 years of a talented offense and a good defense, and this team probably does more than what they did with Dalton.

Agree, absolutely agree about Palmer better than Dalton, I’ll even go as far to say if he doesn’t get hurt we win the Super Bowl that year!!

I feel Andy Dalton's lack of mobility is the root of his and our O-lines problems. There are thousands (exagerration) of times he goes down when 1st pressured and minimal contact occurs. Candidly, he can make the throws given all the time in the world. But, 1st pressure puts him in panic mode looking for a place to land and his inability to escape totally disrupts his read progressions. Just disappointed and his play has not elevated the team for multiple years.

One thing that has always struck me about Andy Dalton is that he never seems to realize how bad his play has been at times. All the way down to this benching and some of his comments to the press today, he seems to be completely clueless as to how bad it can be.