Andy Dalton was the Bears most intriguing free agent signing this year. Yes, they took a shot for Russell Wilson, but ultimately they had to settle for Dalton.
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Mitchell Trubisky is signing with the Buffalo Bills after a largely unsuccessful tenure in Chicago, and backup Nick Foles didn’t turn out how the Bears hoped he would. Thus, the Bears went cheap. They gave Dalton a one year deal worth $10 million to prove himself.
Apparently, they even told Dalton he’d be the starter. That served as all the incentive Dalton needed to sign with Chicago.
So, does that mean that the Bears won’t start the quarterback they paid $24 million over three years for? Well, it sure does look that way. After all, if the Bears were content with Nick Foles as their starter, why not keep Trubisky around and run the same team back again, or sign someone for cheaper?
How Dalton will fit into Matt Nagy’s system and whether he’ll succeed or not is still to be seen. Dalton didn’t exactly wow people as the starter for the Cowboys last year after Dak Prescott went down.
Is Andy Dalton The Answer For The Chicago Bears & Is He Better Than Nick Foles?
The Bears definitely haven’t sorted their quarterback issues out with Dalton’s signing. Dalton is meant to be a stop-gap until the Bears eventually (there has to be some point of time where the suffering ends for Chicago fans right?) get their long term answer.
Dalton is 33 years old, and he’s no longer the Pro Bowler that he once used to be. That being said, Dalton isn’t the worst option out there to be a stop-gap. Let’s take a minute and compare his numbers to Nick Foles from last year.
Dalton started nine games compared to seven games for Foles. Dalton went 4-5 as Dallas’ starter while Foles worked his way to an abysmal 2-5 record before being benched again for Trubisky.
Additionally, Dalton threw 14 touchdowns to 8 interceptions while Foles threw 10 touchdowns to 8 interceptions. However, Foles had a higher average yards per game with 205.8 compared to Dalton’s 197.3. This has context too, though, as Dalton had the higher quarterback rating (87.3 to 80.8) and the higher yards per attempt (6.5 to 5.9).
Thus, the difference isn’t much, but there are signs that Dalton was a more “efficient” quarterback. More than anything, it’s a new face in Chicago. And unlike, Foles, Dalton used to be a stellar quarterback in this league. He’s made the Pro Bowl thrice and guided the Bengals to the playoffs numerous times.
Perhaps that kind of winning mentality can spark something in the Chicago Bears. Again, though, as people on Twitter quickly pointed out. Dalton being named the starter right now doesn’t mean much in Chicago.
The Bears are also reportedly engaging in talks with wide receiver Kenny Golladay who serve as a very solid complementary piece to Allen Robinson. In fact, his addition would give the Bears a very intimidating offensive group (minus the quarterback, of course).
The Bears have a lot of work to do, and there’s no saying how this Andy Dalton experiment will work out. Only time will tell in Chicago, and well, time is a concept Bears fans are all too familiar with. They’ve been waiting for a long time for this franchise to finally have a half-decent quarterback.
