Andy Dalton’s future in Cincinnati has been a hot topic this offseason, with opinions varying on how far Dalton can take the Bengals as their quarterback.
Dalton has led the Bengals to three straight playoff appearances. Dalton has also performed miserably in all three contest. Dalton has the dilemma of a contract extension looming and told ESPN.com that he “wants to be paid like the face of the franchise.”
“It’s a quarterback-driven league, so quarterbacks get rewarded a lot of money,” Dalton said per ESPN.com. “For a lot of these quarterbacks, if you’re the quarterback of the team, you’re the face of the franchise. So these teams obviously believe in their guy and they’re going to pay him that way.”
In trying to figure out what he deserves, Dalton said “his camp is stacking up his first three campaigns among those of other franchise quarterbacks like Flacco, Brees and Rodgers.”
(Joe) Flacco, (Aaron) Rodgers, (Drew) Brees. Who else is up there? Matt Ryan,” he said laughing, when asked for the best comparisons, per the team’s official website.