Andy Dalton might have started his last game for the Cincinnati Bengals, but that doesn’t mean he wants to leave town. The quarterback recently made comments hinting he is open to returning to the only team he’s ever played for, even if it means he’d be taking the backup role. Ben Baby of ESPN reports Dalton told the media one of his options is coming back to the Bengals for the final year of his contract and then moving on after the 2020 season.
“I truly believe they want what’s best for me, but I understand it’s a business, and you know how that goes,” Dalton said. “With the first pick, if they take a quarterback like everyone expects, that could trigger something. There’s even a scenario where I go back there.”
The Bengals have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft next week. Nearly everyone associated with the NFL believes they will take LSU quarterback Joe Burrow with that pick. If they do follow through by choosing Burrow, it would be the first time since 2011 the team has used a first- or second-round pick on a quarterback. The last time they took that position so early in the draft, they chose Dalton.
Baby points out an issue that would seem to make it near impossible for the Bengals to bring Dalton back this season. He’s set to make $17.7 million, and the franchise doesn’t have that much space under the cap. It is currently $9.3 million under the cap and expects draft picks to cost about $11.8 million.
The problem for the Bengals has been that they haven’t been able to find a trade partner to take Dalton off their hands. There was some talk earlier this offseason that the Bears might be interested in acquiring him, but they ended up with Nick Foles.
There have also been rumors of the New England Patriots being interested in Dalton. However, that interest hasn’t been sufficient to make them offer up enough to pry him from the Bengals.
While Dalton seems to be willing to return to his team as a backup, he hasn’t given up hope of being a starter again. He started last season in that role but was benched in the middle of the year so the team could see what they had with rookie Ryan Finley. After several bad outings from Finley, Dalton was inserted back into the starting role. He eventually led the team to a season-ending 33-23 win over Cleveland. After the game, he told the gathered media he felt he can still be a starter in the league.