Would You Trade The Jets 1st Round Selection For Andy Dalton?

Andy Dalton is often criticized by the Bengal fans and media. After signing his 6 year $115 million contract last summer, many questioned whether he was worth such a large sum of money. Dalton received all of his guaranteed money in 2015, and although his base salary escalates from next year through 2020, the Bengals structured his contract in a way that they could move on from him after 2015 very easily.

Coming into the draft I was an Andy Dalton fan, and through the first four years of his career he has played some pretty good football in Cincinnati. Sure, he's been absolutely dreadful in the post-season and that can't be ignored, performing under pressure is what makes a great quarterback, a great quarterback.

A lot of Jets fans comment that if we get consistent, or even average quarterback play, this team will be a very good football team. Andy Dalton to me, plays above average football for the majority of the season. The Jets haven't enjoyed that luxury for many years and the appeal of having a quarterback of Andy Dalton's caliber would be appealing, even though he's no star at the position.

Lets just hypothetically say the Jets finish the season with a top 15 selection in the NFL draft. The impact area, where you hope to draft a game-changer. The Bengals want to move on from Dalton, do you make the trade? Would the Bengals accept say the #15 pick in the NFL draft for Dalton? . On the face of it,  I want to know if you would trade the Jets 2016 1st round draft pick for Andy Dalton, and in this scenario it's a middle of the first round selection.

Andy Dalton has played all 16 games (plus post-season games) over the course of his entire NFL career, so he's durable, that much is true. He's 27 years old so he still has a good 7-10 years left in the league. He has a career record of 40-23 and the Bengals have made the post-season every single year he's been their starter. He's recorded 99 TD's to 66 INT's for 14,758 yards and a rating of 85.2, he's also rushed for 11 touchdowns in 4 years.

If you translate that record to the 2015 Jets, how many games do we win? 10?

However it's not all roses with Dalton. He makes mistakes, and he throws a lot of interceptions. Last year he only threw 2 more touchdowns than interceptions. He has a great supporting cast with the Bengals, including one of the best receivers in the league in A.J Green. In the play-offs he is 0-4, in those games he's thrown 1 touchdown to 6 interceptions and only completed 55.7% of his passes. He regressed last year in the first year of Hugh Jackson's reign as offensive coordinator, and with A.J Green struggling with injuries.

The coaching staff of the Bengals still believe in Dalton, the owner still believes in him and as far as we've heard, the players still believe in him. He's coming off a season where he threw 19 touchdowns to 17 interceptions even though his completion percentage went up to over 64% for the first time in his career. His very low 7.0 yards per attempt average are also worth consideration. All are worrying when you consider that Dalton was one of the best protected QB's last year.

Still the question remains. Looking at Dalton's body of work. Would you trade the Jets 1st round selection in the 2016 NFL draft for him? Would you settle for average to above average QB play because it's vastly better than what we've experienced or would you look to continue the search for the Jets QB through the draft?

Personally I would be very tempted to trade a first round selection for the services of Andy Dalton. Would you be tempted?