Andy Dalton is a good NFL quarterback
Cheap C.J. Uzomah Jersey , but at what point should a team decide that good is not good enough?"In the last 16 years Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton
Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers have combined to win 13
Super Bowls. All 6 players are sure-fire Hall of Famers, The other 3 Super Bowl
winning quarterbacks in that time frame were Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson, and
Nick Foles. All had great defenses and none repeated as champions. It is hard to
win the big game without an elite trigger man, just ask the Bengals. Andy Dalton
has been the man under center for Cincinnati since 2011 and while he has led the
team to the playoffs, Dalton’s success has been largely dependent on what is
around him. Dalton is capable of winning a Super Bowl if all other conditions
are right, but he is not a quarterback who will make a team a serious contender
year in and year out. Even with all the success he has had in Cincinnati, they
should always be looking for that guy.So, when is the right time to upgrade at
the quarterback position?The answer to this question is simple: As soon as
possible. Teams must be constantly looking to improve and this means seeking to
upgrade at every position. The key is being right. If the Bengals see a
franchise changing quarterback in this draft, they must move heaven and earth to
get him. That is what the Kansas City Chiefs did with Patrick Mahomes. They saw
him and moved up in the draft to get him, giving up a first round pick the next
year to do it. That team was fine with Alex Smith at quarterback. He had taken
them to the playoffs and likely would again
Jeff Driskel Jersey , but Mahomes was a difference maker whose transcendent talent took the Chiefs to the next level in 2018. Sure they could
have built around Smith, but they would have been depending on a lot more people
and would not have had that one play maker to put them over the hump.As I said
though, you better be right. The Arizona Cardinals are rumored to be moving on
from Josh Rosen after only one season. If so it would be an oddity. In most
cases drafting a first round quarterback is a commitment. Even if the player
isn’t expected to start in year one, they will likely get the nod in year two.
That was the case with Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. Both were drafted to teams
with establish, but not world-beating quarterbacks, and in both cases, those
established quarterbacks were sent packing a year later.So let’s say the Bengals
made a move on a quarterback in Round 1, and they were wrong. A few things could
happen. First, they may realize in his rookie season that he is not going to
surpass Dalton immediately. So they don’t trade Dalton and their draftee
continues to ride the pine. Dalton is now likely getting disgruntled, but his
career with the team has actually been extended, That is because the team will
not look to draft a quarterback high in 2020 because they are invested in their
2019 first round pick as the future of their franchise (again Arizona could
potentially be an exception). So now they missed on a QB in the 2019 Draft and
missed out on a QB in the 2020 Draft. So should they make a move and draft a
quarterback in the 2019. Yes, if...Yes, if they have identified a franchise
changing quarterback. If they think the can get in a position to draft
Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, or Missouri’s Drew Lock
and they think that is the guy who will make this franchise a Super Bowl
contender, than they absolutely have to do it even if that means giving up heavy
draft capital over the next two years.If they don’t identify one of those three
as that transcendent franchise altering player
Nick Vigil Jersey Limited , then they should wait. They may look to take a quarterback later in the draft and possibly move up to get him. Buffalo’s Tyree
Jackson, West Virginia’s Will Grier, and Boise State’s Brett Rypien. Maybe they
believe one of these guys could be that transcendent player, but even if they
don’t it is okay to take a flier on a guy after Round 1. Spending a 2nd or 3rd
Round pick on one of these guys wouldn’t prevent them from entering the Tua
Tagovailoa sweepstakes in 2020.So when is the right time to upgrade at
quarterback? When you know you can. Appearing on local radio stations helps give
me a good sense of what’s being said about the home team in its own town. On
Monday, a visit with Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh caused me
to do a spit take.During the segment, Fillipponi suggested this idea for the
Steelers: Trade Mike Tomlin, and promote Mike Munchak to head coach.It’s a
stunning thought, an ultra-aggressive approach for an uber-conservative team
that has allowed its insistence on continuity among its coaches to become part
of its identity. But with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger publicly stumping for
Munchak to stay with the team at a time when he’s one of the finalists to coach
the Broncos, it’s an intriguing thought.“I pray that fans write as many letters
as they can to Mr. [Art] Rooney to keep Coach Munchak around,” Roethlisberger
recently said. “He’s such a special coach. When the linemen are happy and love
to play for their coach, they play better.”With vacant jobs starting to fill
(three have been filled in the past 24 hours or so), it could be hard to find a
suitor for Tomlin, if the Steelers were inclined to even try. And the concept
knocked me wobbly in large part because, typically, the trade of a coach happens
when another team wants to get him, not when his current team wants to unload
him.If the Steelers were to start making phone calls about a possible Tomlin
trade
http://www.cincinnatibengalsteamonline.com/jordan-willis-jersey , and if any of that were to get out, how could the Steelers move forward with
Tomlin? It would be difficult if not impossible. Also, with the three NFC
vacancies now filled, the Steelers’ only remaining options could be within the
AFC: Jets, Dolphins, Browns, Bengals, Broncos.Of course, the notion that Tomlin
could be available could prompt a team with a coach currently under contract to
inquire about the possibility. And Tomlin’s minority status would allow the
transaction to happen quickly, with no traditional coaching search.The chances
of it happening are somewhere between slim and none, but it’s an intriguing
idea, one that should at least prompt interested teams to ask themselves whether
it’s worth making a call.
