After three weeks, grading Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton isn’t an easy task.
It is a well-known fact Dalton is playing behind a hobbled, oftentimes ineffective offensive line. He is also going at it without star wideout A.J. Green and has started his season with two road games.
At Pro Football Focus via Steve Palazzolo, the grading system slots Dalton as the 22nd quarterback in the NFL right now.
After a promising start in Week 1, Dalton has struggled over the last two weeks, and he has the 11th-highest rate of uncatchable passes on throws beyond the line of scrimmage. He’s not complementing the misses either, with the 21st-highest rate of positively graded throws and 24th-highest percentage of big-time throws. The pass blocking hasn’t helped — Dalton has faced pressure on 34.0% of his dropbacks so far — but Dalton has managed the 10th-best passer rating when pressured, at 96.1.
Call it an interesting insight into the same old problem — Dalton hurts defenses based on what he’s seeing when they send pressure his way. All other times, he’s not reliably comfortable in pockets and pushing the ball past the line with accuracy.
Truthfully, Dalton looked like a different player in Week 3 against the Bills compared to his form in Week 1 in Seattle of all places. Wide receivers switching positions during the buildup to Week 3 and initially having problems with communication probably didn’t help, but it’s a concerning development going into Monday night against Pittsburgh.
If Dalton is more Seattle Dalton than Buffalo Dalton, he has a chance of clawing his way out of a ranking range that includes guys like Jameis Winston and Mitchell Trubisky.
