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The Cincinnati Bengals lost Andy Dalton for the season because of a thumb injury on Sunday, and now there are some questions if he has taken his last snap with the team that drafted him. The Bengals have five games to look at backup Jeff Driskel, and according to Katherine Terrell of ESPN, a good performance by him could force the Bengals hand.
Dalton has two years left on his contract scheduled to make $16 million in 2019 and $17.5 million in 2020. That is a lot of money to pay a guy if they have any questions if he is the right guy to continue to lead this team and the team could release him after this year, without any dead money on the books.
It still seems unlikely unless Driskel lights up the NFL the last few weeks, or the front office decides to move on from Marvin Lewis. Lewis has not been a guy to make significant changes, and if he is back, it's hard to imagine he is going to try a new quarterback in a year he is trying to save his job.
Dalton has been a good quarterback, but the last few years he hasn't been great and seemed to be a middle of the road quarterback. Before his injury, Dalton had thrown for 2,566 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. If he comes back next year, those interceptions are going to need to be cleaned up. There is going to be a lot of pressure on him to perform, and he is going to need to step up to the plate.
