Bengals news: Andy Dalton discusses his contract situation

The Cincinnati Bengals may have gone as far as they're going to go with Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback. Dalton recently talked about his current contract situation with the team.

Throughout his NFL career, former Pro Bowl quarterback Andy Dalton has been the cornerstone piece under center for the Cincinnati Bengals. He has helped the team to much success on the field that include a few trips to the playoffs.

With Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins receiving a three-year, $84 fully guaranteed deal has pushed attention toward Dalton's contract situation as he heads into the fourth year of his six-year, $96 million deal. According to Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk, the 30-year-old didn't voice any concern about his standing with the team.

“I feel like it’s definitely trending upward,” the Bengals quarterback said during TCU’s Pro Day on Friday. “It’s every year it’s a new guy that’s making the most in the NFL, has the most guaranteed and all of that kind of stuff, but with the salary cap going on, there’s more money to hand out. I’m happy for Kirk. Kirk’s obviously played a couple of years on the franchise tag, so when you do that, he had leverage to get the contract that he got. We’ll see if it’s the new trend.”

Through his first seven years in the league, Dalton has brought much stability to the franchise with five straight playoff appearances and two AFC North division titles to start his career. However, the last two season the Bengals have missed the playoffs posting back-to-back losing campaigns.

On top of that, Dalton's play hasn't helped the situation either as he struggled to provide consistency this past season throwing for 3,320 yards on 59.9 percent completion rate, which are both the second-lowest totals of his career. He also had 25 touchdowns to 12 interceptions with three fumbles, and an 86.6 passer rating.

This is likely not pushing the Bengals to be in any rush toward getting a new deal down given his decline in play and that he is still under contract for three more years. If anything, the front office could look to add talent at the position in this year's draft with one of their several selections. Although the Cousins' deal will shifts things around the league, it doesn't look like that will be the case at this point in Cincinnati.