Andy Dalton - Pro Football Rumors

Andy Dalton Leftovers: Negotiations, Fallout

August 5th, 2014 at 8:57am CST by Luke Adams

Head coach Marvin Lewis said yesterday that he and the Bengals “never wavered” on making Andy Dalton the team’s long-term quarterback, according to Peter King of TheMMQB.com (Twitter link). Meanwhile, as Coley Harvey of ESPN.com tweets, Bengals owner Mike Smith said at yesterday’s press conference that his daughter, Katie Blackburn, negotiated the quarterback’s deal. Smith has been Cincinnati’s de facto GM for some time, but he has recently let Lewis and Blackburn handle more of the football decisions.

Here are a few more links relating to the fallout of the Dalton deal, including how it could affect other quarterbacks who are extension candidates:

In an extended piece on the Dalton contract at TheMMQB.com, King praises the deal for being team-friendly, allowing the Bengals to evaluate their quarterback for the next two or three years — if he doesn’t eventually achieve playoff success, the club can get out of the pact fairly cheaply and draft a new QB in 2016 or 2017.
King also notes that the pressure is on new Cincinnati offensive coordinator Hue Jackson to max out Dalton’s potential. If Dalton has success under Jackson, it could result in the former Raiders coach getting another opportunity at a head coaching job.
After Dalton signed, Lewis texted A.J. Green encouraging him to tell his agent to get extension talks going with the club, tweets King, adding that the Bengals head coach wants to get the team’s core secured.
While Dalton was eligible for free agency following the 2014 season, Carolina has Cam Newton locked up through 2015, so Dalton’s extension doesn’t mean the Panthers will push to get anything done with their quarterback, writes David Newton of ESPN.com. However, the ESPN scribe wonders if the recent deals for Dalton and Colin Kaepernick will help provide the parameters for Newton’s second contract.
Alex Smith, on the other hand, is heading into 2014 on an expiring contract, but Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star doesn’t think Dalton’s deal means a lot for the Chiefs‘ signal-caller. As Mellinger observes, agent Tom Condon isn’t likely to let Kansas City lock up Smith at an overly team-friendly rate — in Mellinger’s view, if the Chiefs try to use the Dalton/Kaepernick framework in negotiations with Smith, it may actually hold up negotiations.

Bengals Sign Dalton To Six-Year Extension

August 4th, 2014 at 1:15pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bengals have reached a long-term agreement with their starting quarterback, confirming today that they’ve signed Andy Dalton to a six-year contract extension. Combined with the one year remaining on his current pact, the deal locks up Dalton through the 2020 season.

Although initial reports pegged the value of the six-year deal at $115MM, the base value is actually $96MM, with $17MM in guaranteed money — Dalton will receive a $12MM signing bonus and a $5MM roster bonus that’s due in three days. Escalators can push the overall value of the contract up to about $115MM, with the extra $19MM or so available based on whether Dalton and the Bengals advance to the divisional round, conference championship, and Super Bowl during the next few seasons. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has the complete year-by-year breakdown of the pact, as well as the specific details on how Dalton can earn up to $115MM.

The Bengals passed on quarterbacks in the early rounds of this year’s draft before ultimately selecting A.J. McCarron in the fifth round, suggesting that the team was relying on Dalton as its quarterback of the future. Both sides expressed optimism throughout the offseason about getting something done, even as the Bengals weighed new deals for other extension candidates like A.J. Green and Vontaze Burfict.

While Dalton has yet to win a playoff game as the starter in Cincinnati, the 26-year-old has put up big numbers in the regular season, setting career-highs in 2013 with 4,293 passing yards and 33 touchdowns. Selected in the second round of the 2011 draft, Dalton has led the Bengals to a 30-18 record and three postseason appearances during his first three seasons in the league, averaging nearly 3,800 yards passing, 27 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in that span.

Advanced metrics rate Dalton as average — Football Outsiders ranked him as the 17th-best QB by DYAR in 2013, while Pro Football Focus (subscription required) graded him 16th-best. The PFF rating, however, illustrates Dalton’s inconsistency — in 2014, he finished three weeks with a +5.0 or better grade, while five other weeks saw him earn a -3.0 or worse mark.

That inconsistency, combined with Dalton’s 0-3 playoff record, may be why more than half of you voted back in June that the Bengals shouldn’t reward the QB with a long-term extension. Still, given the market for solid starting quarterbacks, it seemed likely all along that Cincinnati would have to pay around $18MM per year to retain Dalton, as our Dallas Robinson suggested earlier in the offseason. At six years and $96MM, the deal actually has an annual average of just $16MM, though that number could increase to over $19MM based on the team’s performance. Dalton’s agreement could also have an effect on fellow extension candidate Alex Smith, who is likewise entering the last year of his current contract.

The structure and guarantees on Dalton’s new contract are notable, since Bengals owner Mike Brown indicated last month that the team would like to sign its quarterback to a deal similar to the one agreed to by Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers. The value of Kaepernick’s extension is a little higher than Dalton’s, but the Niners’ signal-caller landed a more modest guarantee (about $12.3MM), and his extension also includes potential de-escalators if he doesn’t reach certain benchmarks. Both contracts get most of the guarantees out of the way early though, making them pay-as-you-go deals for the Bengals and Niners.

Adam Schefter and Adam Caplan of ESPN.com first reported the agreement (via Twitter), with Pro Football Talk and Albert Breer of NFL.com (Twitter links) adding details.

Dallas Robinson contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Big Cats Notes: Newton, Suh, Dalton

August 3rd, 2014 at 8:45am CST by Rory Parks

As Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer writes, “the seal was broken” on extensions for 2011 first-round draft picks–the inaugural group of first-rounders under the new CBA–when Patrick Peterson and Tyson Smith recently signed new long-term, big-money deals. Given the extensions for those high-profile franchise cornerstones, Person wonders when the Panthers will look to extend quarterback Cam Newton.

Of course, Carolina picked up Newton’s option for 2015 back in April, so they have time to get a deal done. The team might also be wise to wait and see how Newton’s surgically-repaired left ankle responds this year. However, if Newton enjoys the same type of success in 2014 that he did in 2013, he will really drive up his price tag, especially since Newton’s supporting cast appears weaker this season.

Former NFL agent Joel Corry does not believe the new deals for Smith and Peterson will “open the floodgates” for their fellow 2011 first-rounders, and he expects the Panthers and Newton to strike an agreement on an extension after the end of the 2014 campaign but before training camp opens in 2015. It remains to be seen what that extension will look like, but an average annual value of $20MM seems to be the new starting point for signal-callers of Newton’s caliber.

Now for some more links from the league’s Big Cat franchises:

Former agent Joel Corry believes that the Lions‘ decision to table contract talks with Ndamukong Suh indicates that Suh’s contract demands are “sky-high” and that he was probably asking to be the highest-paid defensive player in the league, writes Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. Corry believes that if Suh’s camp was not asking for that type of contract, the two sides probably would have struck a deal.
Jaguars‘ running back Toby Gerhart was held out of Saturday’s scrimmage, but Gerhart said he was merely experiencing leg tightness and the decision to not participate in the scrimmage was precautionary, writes Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida-Times Union.
In the same piece, O’Halloran provides a little more detail on the roster moves that the Jaguars made yesterday.
Coley Harvey of ESPN.com writes that Bengals‘ quarterback Andy Dalton, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, has been “sensational” in training camp thus far.

Bengals Rumors: Dalton, Green, Burfict

July 31st, 2014 at 10:38am CST by Luke Adams

Marvin Lewis‘ 2013 offensive and defensive coordinators are both now running teams of their own, with Jay Gruden having departed for Washington and Mike Zimmer coaching the Vikings. But Lewis and the Bengals have plenty of confidence that installing a pair of new coordinators this season won’t have an adverse effect on the club, as the head coach tells Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.

“The timing of when Jay and Mike were offered head coaching positions and they accepted, it couldn’t have played any better for me and made it a much easier transition without much angst, which was good,” Lewis said. “And it was good for our players as well knowing they could continue on with people who knew them. … We are able to come in and pick up where we left off.”

In addition to exploring the integration of Hue Jackson and Paul Guenther into their new roles on the Bengals’ coaching staff, La Canfora also explores a number of other topics of note after his visit to Cincinnati’s training camp. Let’s round up the highlights….

La Canfora doesn’t expect a contract agreement between Andy Dalton and the Bengals before the season gets underway, and it’s unlikely that the two sides would continue negotiations during the season. According to La Canfora, there hasn’t been any progress or movement lately, and it doesn’t seem as if Dalton’s camp is interested in a short-term bridge deal or a long-term deal without much money up front (a la Colin Kaepernick‘s extension).
The door has been opened for 2011 first-rounders to sign contract extensions after Patrick Peterson and Tyron Smith inked new deals this week, and La Canfora wouldn’t be surprised if A.J. Green ultimately landed an extension before Dalton. For now, the Bengals have the star wideout locked up through 2015 after exercising his fifth-year option, but the team will want to keep him around long-term.
The Bengals also continue to work on a new deal for linebacker Vontaze Burfict, with the goal of getting something done before the season gets underway, says La Canfora.
Mohamed Sanu could be a beneficiary of Andrew Hawkins‘ free agent departure to Cleveland, according to La Canfora, who says Sanu is “generating a strong buzz” in camp.

AFC Notes: Blackmon, Chiefs, Ross, Dalton

July 24th, 2014 at 11:00am CST by Luke Adams

Wide receiver Justin Blackmon, who was already serving an indefinite suspension for violations of the league’s substance abuse policy, was arrested in Oklahoma on Wednesday night for possession of marijuana, as Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union details. The Jaguars say they haven’t considered cutting Blackmon, but there’s no indication that he’ll be reinstated and return to the field anytime soon.

Here’s more from around the AFC:

Via Joel Corry of CBSSports.com, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap passes along the details on Jamaal Charles’ new deal with the Chiefs, which includes a roster bonus and reporting bonus for 2014, but no prorated signing bonus.
Even after signing his extension, Charles also earned the honor of having the best contract on the Chiefs, in Fitzgerald’s view. On the other end of the spectrum, Dwayne Bowe’s deal is the least team-friendly pact on the team’s books, says Fitzgerald.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh told reporters, including Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter link), that cornerback Aaron Ross tore his Achilles tendon during the team’s conditioning test, and will be out for the season. The injury is an unfortunate one for the veteran defensive back, who was hoping to earn a regular-season roster spot.
Speaking to the media today, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton said he’s not worried about his contract situation, adding that the backing of owner Mike Smith makes him confident the two sides will work something out (Twitter links via Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com).

Bengals Seeking Kaepernick Contract For Dalton?

July 22nd, 2014 at 11:25am CST by Luke Adams

Bengals owner and de facto general manager Mike Brown spoke to reporters today, and his starting quarterback was among the topics addressed. According to Brown, while using the franchise tag on Andy Dalton in 2015 remains an option, the team would like to get a longer-term deal done, and is hopeful that an agreement will be reached soon (all Twitter links via Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com). Brown went on to say that he thinks an extension for Dalton should be in the range of Colin Kaepernick‘s new contract with the 49ers (Twitter link).

The comparison to Kaepernick’s situation and extension is an interesting one, since the structure of that deal was considered somewhat team-friendly, and its overall value could fluctuate significantly depending on whether the Niners’ signal-caller triggers certain escalators. The six new years added to Kaepernick’s contract could be worth anywhere from $114MM ($19MM annually) to $126MM ($21MM per year), which seems like a steep price tag for Brown to voluntarily assign to Dalton. On the other hand, only about $13MM of that contract is fully guaranteed, and if you count the 2014 season as part of the deal, its overall annual value slips closer to the neighborhood of $17-18MM.

With both sides expressing optimism about working out a multiyear agreement, I’d be a little surprised if Dalton hadn’t signed an extension by the time the regular season gets underway. Still, as Brown notes, the franchise tag could be in play for the club in March if nothing has been worked out by that point. This past year, the franchise figure for quarterbacks amounted to $16.912MM.

A.J. Green Discusses Extension, Andy Dalton

July 17th, 2014 at 2:55pm CST by Luke Adams

While A.J. Green figures to eventually enter negotiations with the Bengals on a long-term deal, the fifth-year option for first-round picks ensures that it isn’t necessarily an immediate concern for the club. Having exercised Green’s option earlier this offseason, the Bengals locked up the star wideout through the 2015 season, meaning extension discussions may not heat up for another year or more.

As Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com details, Green acknowledged that the potential wait won’t bother him, and the receiver also discussed a potential extension for the guy throwing him the football, quarterback Andy Dalton. Here are the notable quotes from Green:

On Dalton and a possible new contract for the QB:

“We came in together. That’s my guy. He helped me where I am. I helped him and we took the Bengals to a different level. The Bengals were losing a lot before we came. I feel like we turned it around. … I know they know he’s the guy…I feel like they’re going to get something done before the season starts.”

On Dalton’s regular-season success and lack thereof in the postseason:

“A lot of people give him crap about not winning a playoff game, but we’ve made the playoffs the last three seasons. We’ve won 10 or more games (twice). Playoff games…we’re still young. I feel like we’re going to win them, it just takes time.”

On Green’s own contract:

“I think I’m on the backburner just because of the option. That’s fine with me. I don’t even look at it like that. I just go out there and play and my time will come. … It’s not surprising. Teams always want to wait. I’m fine with my option and my $10MM. I’ll take it.”

AFC Notes: Dalton, Glenn, Colts, London

July 11th, 2014 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

Shortly after star wideout A.J. Green said he doesn’t want to play with any other quarterback besides Andy Dalton, the Dalton support campaign continued, with Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson praising his QB.

“We are tethered together,” Jackson told Michael Silver of NFL.com. “And I’ll jump off a building with this guy, because I believe in the things he’s trying to accomplish with his career, and I think I can help him.”

Dalton is entering the final year of his current contract, and has reportedly discussed an extension with the team, though it’s not clear whether the two sides will reach a long-term agreement in the near future. Here’s more from around the AFC:

Cordy Glenn was arguably the Bills‘ best offensive lineman a year ago, but he’s not extension-eligible until after the 2014 season, at which point locking him up figures to become a top priority for the team, says Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. Because Glenn wasn’t a first-round pick, Buffalo won’t hold a fifth-year option on his rookie deal.
Pointing to Andre Johnson‘s contract with the Texans as an example, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggests that simple contract restructures don’t always benefit the player, since they result in larger cap hits in later years of the deal, increasing the likelihood of the player’s release. While there’s some truth to that, I’d point out that restructures also increase the dead money on a contract in those future seasons, which somewhat offsets the increased cap hit — Before it was reworked, Johnson’s deal had a more manageable cap number for 2015, but it also had less dead money for ’15, so if he’s at risk to be cut next year, that risk probably would’ve existed either way.
In his latest mailbag, Kevin Bowen of Colts.com explores how free agent signee Hakeem Nicks will fit in Indianapolis, and discusses a few other Colts-related topics.
Maurice Jones-Drew, Charles Woodson, and Marcel Reece are among the Raiders looking forward to this year’s game in London, and both Jones-Drew and Matt Schaub went so far as to suggest that the European city deserves an NFL franchise, as Neil Reynolds details at BritViewNFL.com (hat tip to Pro Football Talk).

Bengals Rumors: Dalton, Extensions, Reynolds

June 11th, 2014 at 11:20am CST by Luke Adams

Earlier today, the Bengals announced a series of roster moves, signing offensive tackle Will Svitek and cornerback Victor Hampton, and cutting cornerback Brandon Burton and linebacker Bruce Taylor. That’s not the only news coming out of Cincinnati this morning though, so let’s check in on a few other items….

Andy Dalton and the Bengals have made some progress in talks on a new contract, but nothing is imminent at this point, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. According to Rapoport, both sides seem to have confidence that something will get done, but it looks like it will happen closer to – or during – training camp. When I asked yesterday about a possible Dalton extension, about 60% of you said Cincinnati shouldn’t hammer out an agreement with its quarterback yet.
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis appeared on SiriusXM NFL Radio and addressed the team’s negotiations with Dalton. Lewis that he’s being kept apprised on the potential numbers and structure of an extension, but that his main responsibility is to ensure that his quarterback isn’t getting too caught up in contract talk.
Lewis also added that reaching a deal with Dalton will allow the Bengals to focus on other players who may be next in line for a new contract. The head coach specifically mentioned his tight end and linebacker, so presumably he’s referring to Jermaine Gresham and Vontaze Burfict, both of whom are entering the final year of their contracts.
Prior to signing Svitek, the Bengals also worked out veteran offensive lineman Garrett Reynolds, tweets ESPN.com’s Adam Caplan. It’s not clear if Cincinnati chose Svitek over Reynolds, or if the club still may have interest in the ex-Falcon.

Extra Points: Williams, Sheard, Quessenberry

June 10th, 2014 at 2:07pm CST by Luke Adams

While the free agent market has thinned out considerably over the last several months, there are still players capable of providing value to NFL teams, and one such free agent is veteran defensive tackle Kevin Williams. Appearing on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Williams suggested talks have been “picking up” for him lately and that he anticipates signing somewhere in time for training camp. As the longtime Viking confirmed, he has visited the Patriots, Giants, and Seahawks, and has also spoken recently to Minnesota.

Let’s check in on a few more items from around the league….

Browns outside linebacker Jabaal Sheard said today that he and the club have had some preliminary talks about a contract extension and that he hopes something can be worked out, tweets Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal.
Texans offensive lineman David Quessenberry has been placed on the NFL’s non-football illness list after being diagnosed with lymphoma, the club announced today in a press release. In a statement, GM Rick Smith expressed confidence in the care Quessenberry would receive. “We look forward to his full and complete recovery,” Smith said. “We will continue to support him and his family and look forward to his return to the team.” Our thoughts and well-wishes go out to Quessenberry and his family as he battles the disease.
Asked about Colin Kaepernick‘s new contract extension, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton said his biggest takeaway from the agreement was simply the fact that Kaepernick and the 49ers were able to get something done (link via Kevin Patra of NFL.com). Dalton, of course, will be looking for an extension of his own very soon.
Taking an early look ahead to the 2015 NFL draft, Mel Kiper discusses the top senior and underclassmen defensive ends in an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com. Texas’ Cedric Reed and Nebraska’s Randy Gregory top Kiper’s lists.
The Dolphins‘ willingness to shift Jason Fox to left tackle behind Branden Albert in OTAs suggests the club has confidence in rookie Ju’Wuan James‘ ability to hang onto the right tackle job, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.