{"id":87293,"date":"2020-05-02T22:17:27","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T02:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=87293"},"modified":"2020-05-02T22:17:27","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T02:17:27","slug":"andy-dalton-signing-with-dallas-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/05\/02\/andy-dalton-signing-with-dallas-cowboys\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Dalton Signing With Dallas Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaltAn00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andy Dalton<\/a><\/strong> was not without a team for very long.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran NFL quarterback signed a one-year deal with the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cowboys\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> on Saturday, per <strong>Adam Schefter<\/strong> of ESPN. His new pact contains $3 million in guaranteed money but is worth up to $7 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Former Bengals\u2019 QB Andy Dalton is signing a one-year deal worth up to $7 million that includes $3 million guaranteed with the Dallas Cowboys, source tells ESPN. <\/p>\n<p>Dalton is returning to Texas.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/1256751536400674817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Dalton spent all nine of his previous seasons in the NFL with the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bengals\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>. But his stint in Cincy came to an end <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2020\/04\/30\/andy-dalton-released-by-cincinnati-bengals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">when the team released him on Thursday<\/a>. He ultimately finished his Bengals career as one of the most prolific quarterbacks in franchise history.<\/p>\n<p>The stats invariably bear this out. Dalton is the team&#8217;s all-time leader in touchdown passes (204) and completions (2,757). His 70 regular-season wins and 31,594 career passing yards is second in team history behind <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=AndeKe00,AndeKe20&amp;search=Ken+Anderson&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ken Anderson<\/a><\/strong>. He joins Anderson and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EsiaBo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boomer Esiason<\/a><\/strong> as the only Bengals quarterbacks to tally over 60 wins during the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>Dalton was thrust into a rather prominent role early in his NFL career. He started all 16 games as a rookie in 2011, going 9-7 in the process which was good enough for the Bengals to clinch a playoff berth. But postseason success proved elusive. A 31-10 loss to the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/texans\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Houston Texans<\/a> that year would be the first of five straight losses in the Wild Card round for Dalton and the Bengals.<\/p>\n<p>That inability to get over the hump in the playoffs ultimately led to the dismissal of long-time Bengals head coach <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LewiMa22.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marvin Lewis<\/a><\/strong> after the 2018 season. In came <strong>Zac Taylor<\/strong> in what was largely seen as a rebuilding year. Sure enough, the Bengals finished with an NFL-worst 2-14 record which gave them the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. They used it to select LSU standout quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2020\/02\/03\/joe-burrow-2020-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Joe Burrow<\/strong><\/a>, a clear sign the Dalton era was all but over.<\/p>\n<p>Dalton projects as the Cowboys&#8217; backup behind <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PresDa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dak Prescott<\/a><\/strong> who was recently franchise tagged by the team. Other quarterbacks on the current roster include <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RushCo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cooper Rush<\/a><\/strong> who&#8217;s backed up Prescott the past three seasons, <strong>Clayton Thorson<\/strong>, and <strong>Ben DiNucci<\/strong> who the team selected in the seventh round of the 2020 draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Bengals took Dalton early in the second round (35th overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft. It came after a hugely impressive college career at TCU where Dalton earned Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year honors both as a junior and senior. It culminated with a win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2011. Dalton would go on to make the Pro Bowl three times (2011, 2014, 2016) during his time in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Bw_cO1n2Tkx8AcRwi8yIYw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1191095965\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Bw_cO1n2Tkx8AcRwi8yIYw',sig:'Kla3L1KY4C6RQhhFoq7ekNgr2HVsUJdZqR7yAa-SLpI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1191095965',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Dalton is returning to his home state, signing a one-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys according to ESPN&#8217;s Adam Schefter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":87297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,19,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bengals","category-cowboys","category-nfl-news"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}