Cincinnati Bengals: Make-or-break year for Andy Dalton

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Andy Dalton enters a year in 2015, where he has to do something outside of another early playoff exit.

Although the Cincinnati Bengals have their quarterback in place in Andy Dalton, if the TCU product doesn’t surpass expectations in 2015, then the Bengals could be looking for his successor.

When you talk about enigmas in the NFL, there isn’t a quarterback that comes to mind more than Dalton. When the guy is on, he’s accurate and he’s a stud at reading defenses and finding the soft spots on the defenses. However, when he’s off, he looks frantic in the pocket and he has a tendency of throwing the football into contested areas, which in turn leads to a ton of turnovers and inefficient passes.

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Sure the Bengals rewarded Dalton with a six-year deal worth up to $115 million before the start of the 2014 season. However, if Dalton fails to win a playoff game in 2015, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Marvin Lewis gets fired after the year. If that happens, a new coach would come in and that coach might want to start off fresh and not with a quarterback, like Dalton, who would be 0-5, at the time, in postseason play.

There isn’t a more polarizing position on an NFL roster than the quarterback position. No position is more criticized and ridiculed. When a quarterback makes a bevy of mistakes, the media calls attention to it and it resonates and sticks with the fans. That’s not truly the case when a left guard has a few bad games. That said, Dalton needs to do something that he has really yet to do in his entire career. He needs to show consistency. Granted, Tyler Eifert was out for much of the season and No. 2 receiver Marvin Jones spent all of the season on the injured reserve. Nevertheless, A.J. Green and Mohammed Sanu were both healthy for most of the year and Dalton really failed to take advantage of the two behemoth receivers on the outside.

Even though he still has a ton to learn before fully becoming a successful NFL quarterback, A.J. McCarron is a guy who showed a lot of promise at Alabama and if he continues to develop, it wouldn’t be surprising if he even competed for the starting gig before the 2016 season.

Nov 8, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley (17) looks to pass against the Washington Huskies during the second quarter at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

It should also be said that the Bengals are reportedly high on UCLA’s Brett Hundley. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter), the Bengals are one of the three teams that privately worked out Hundley. More intriguingly, Bengals’ quarterback coach, Ken Zampese, met with Hundley at the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine.

Who else has worked out #UCLA QB Brett Hundley? The #Bengals and the #Eagles, along with the #Jets. Big draft wildcard here
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 9, 2015

The pressure is on for the Bengals, as well as Dalton, to actually do something in the 2015 season. I’m a true believer that if the Bengals don’t win a playoff game, Lewis won’t have his job anymore and Dalton’s job would be in high jeopardy. His career has been mediocre to say the least as of now, but the weapons are there for Dalton to be a solid quarterback in 2015. However, he does the same thing he has done the past four years, which has been lose in the first round of the playoffs, don’t be surprised if Dalton loses his starting job.

Next: Cincinnati Bengals: 7-Round Mock Draft

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