The Indianapolis Colts had their eyes on veteran quarterback Philip Rivers since the offseason began, but they also had some contingencies lined up in case it didn’t work out. One of them came in the form of a potential trade for Andy Dalton.
Obviously, the Colts signed Rivers to a one-year, $25 million deal. But before Dalton was released by the Bengals this offseason, the Colts were reportedly having internal discussions about a trade for Dalton, per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports.
“There was a lot of interest in him. And before we even got to the release point. When I was at the combine, I had a couple of people, when I was shaping up the quarterback market and I was talking to some different people,” Robinson said on the Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast. “I got into a conversation about Indianapolis. And they told me, they said, ‘hey, you know, there’s interest in Philip Rivers.’ But guess what they were actually having a conversation in their building about maybe trading for Andy Dalton. Like offering something and seeing if Cincinnati will bite, maybe if the Rivers situation doesn’t work out.”
We don’t know to what degree the Colts had interest in Dalton. Any quarterback-needy team is going to look at all of the options available on the market and even though Dalton had yet to be released, it was no secret the Bengals were taking Joe Burrow with the first overall pick.
The Colts went on to sign Rivers to a one-year deal, and Dalton went on to sign a deal with the Dallas Cowboys to be Dak Prescott’s backup after his release from Cincinnati.
We don’t know how serious the Colts were about a trade for Dalton, but it appears they at least had some internal discussions about it.
