Joe Flacco gets a friend
Aug05
on August 5, 2014
at 12:34 am
It’s been too long since we stopped in on Joe Flacco, goober extraordinaire and his fort of elite moneys.
Andy Dalton got hella paid. Lots of people were dissing the Bengals for it, but the contract turned out nicely and I don’t hate Andy Dalton as much as some people seem to. He’s inconsistent. He can look fantastic, he can look terrible. As a fan of a wildly inconsistent QB, I can assure you that the highs can absolutely be worth it. I don’t know if Dalton is the future, but if he fixes some issues I believe he can be, and be worth every penny of his contract.
Won’t save him from being a super boring nilla wafer QB though.
Reason I have a problem with Dalton is the same reason I have a problem with Stafford: He’s had the best thing a quarterback could ever ask for at wide receiver. Speed, hands, size, jump-ball talent, AJ Green has everything, and in my book he’s #2 right below Calvin Johnson as long as Josh Gordon is out. With that weapon, and especially the other weapons as they’ve been added around him, there’s been no excuse for Dalton not to look like an elite quarterback. He had what, five valid receiving options on every pass play last year? If Green’s not open – which he always is – then you can throw it to Marvin Jones. Or Mohamed Sanu. Or Tyler Eifer. Or Jermaine Gresham. Or Giovani Bernard. He had protection too, with only the third-fewest sacks in the entire league last year.
The reason I complain about him is that from the numbers to the game film performance, he has no excuse not to be amazing. Give Cam Newton what Dalton’s had and you’ll make Andrew Luck look like Christian Ponder. Give Andrew Luck what Dalton’s had and you’ll get a ring. Hell, give Brandon Weeden that talent around him and he’d probably still be a starter, albeit a bad starter.
With that said, I’m reserving judgement of the contract until we find out if it’s like Kaepernick’s where it has a ton of escalators and clauses that make it more thrifty than it appears. But I completely agree with the choir that rags on Dalton.
I, for one, am thrilled that Fort Elite Moneys now has a base of some kind to keep the moneys from falling down at the entrance. It is ridiculous how happy that made me to see.
Remember back in the early 90s when Marino was the highest-paid player in the NFL, on $25m across 5 years?
Remember when you had to be an elite (as opposed to “just-not-terrible”) QB to get paid elite moneys? Good times, good times.
Damn skippy. He might not have the ring, but the ride he took us Fins on more than made up for it.
I hope you’re saying that Marino was elite.
Because he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. If you look at the stuff he’s accomplished, in the era that he played, it’s ridiculous.
I mean, shit, Peyton Manning is a killer cyborg from Mars, but put Marino in the QB-hungry era we have today and I bet he would break records.
I was wondering what was happening with Fort Elite Moneys. And that Sesame Street poster made me laugh out loud, even though I’ve got a Cookie Monster doll.
Seriously though, I don’t think Andy Dalton is completely terrible like most of my NFL loving friends do. They only seem to see the bad in his inconsistencies (and the inconsistencies themselves) not the good, but there are some good inconsistent QB’s out there. Or rather, some not completely terrible ones.
I don’t think Dalton is inconsistent; like Matt Schaub, I think he’s mediocre to above average, but surrounded by an astonishing supporting cast. When he gets to the playoffs and faces another excellent team with an entire year to game plan against him, he’s not good enough to compensate on his own.
By contrast, guys like Eli, Romo, and Cutler are all incredibly inconsistent, but with very high upsides. Yes, they take more risks than they should, which leads to a lot of WTF? plays, but when it works, it’s spectacular. I don’t see that kind of upside to Dalton.
I think Dalton is underrated. Yes, he had some pretty bad games, but he’ll have a good one more often and is always there to start every Sunday. With him under center, the Bengals have made the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 81-82, and then 3 times in a row for the first time ever. Also, they’ve made it 3 times with Dalton, whereas they made it 4 with Ken Anderson, and that has to count for something.
He’s not perfect or elite, but it’s better to have a quarterback that’s been successful with the team than wallowing in a constant QB carousel hell (Browns) for decades at a time looking for the next Peyton. Any Giants fan like myself or David can tell you that a bad statistic like that doesn’t mean there won’t be continued success.
I like Dalton, but he falls apart in the playoffs. Mid-tier guys don’t deserved top-tier money! I would give Dalton $70 million MAX. With AJ Green and a decent receiving core, Dalton should be lighting up defenses like he is Payton Manning’s and Tom Brady’s love child!
Keep in mind how Dalton’s contract is structured. He has no guaranteed money after the 2nd year. Essentially he’s guaranteed $17M in the first year & $8M in the second. He has to earn everything after that. Besides, in order for him to get the full payout from the contract ($115M or $116M), he literally has to win 6 straight Super Bowls. No way in hell that happens
I’m happy with a prove it contract. I’ll sit through another two years and see how he develops under Hue.
Ohio teams gonna turn AFCN on its head this year, just y’all wait…
As a Bengals fan, I’ve never really got why so many people have bashed Dalton. When he has a bad game, he looks like one of the worst players in the league, but he has way more good than bad, and he has less bad games every season. I know he has done poorly in the playoffs so far, but thats only three games. Not much of a sample size. If Dalton gets some playoff wins under his belt, this contract will look like a great deal. If not, the Bengals have a few years to get out of it without much penalty, so either way its hard to argue that they screwed this one up.
I still think Andy Dalton is a better quarterback than Joe Flacco who just had one good season.