Heading into the 2013 fantasy football season, Cincinnati Bengals QB Andy Dalton was almost universally considered a low end QB 1 in 12-team leagues and in some cases was ranked lower. Despite taking the Bengals to the playoff his first two seasons, Dalton still had not entered into the realm where he was beloved and respected by the majority of the fantasy football community. For one, the Bengals had been a run-dominant team since Dalton came into the league and in paining BenJarvus Green-Ellis and rookie Giovani Bernard, it seemed the same scenario would be in play once again when Week 1 rolled around. However in looking a bit under the hood, Dalton was actually profiling himself as a QB on the rise, having increased his passing touchdowns from 20 to 27 his first two seasons and with top wideout A.J. Green joining a terrific pair of pass catching tight ends in Jermaine Gresham and rookie Tyler Eifert, Dalton was certainly being surrounded with potent talent.
Fast forward to present day and what we have no is an Andy Dalton who one could argue is the hottest quarterback in the NFL in coming off a five touchdown monster performance in a win last Sunday over the New York Jets. That tremendous outing followed back-to-back weeks where Dalton threw 3 touchdown passes in each, while also topping 300 passing yards in both. So halfway through Dalton's season, he sits here with 16 touchdowns and 2,249 yards as he has helped the Bengals transition into one of the best passing offenses in all of football. With Marvin Jones having emerged into a very good complement to Green, in addition to the two tight ends mentioned above, Dalton is set to continue his terrific breakout.
In returning to what I said earlier, Dalton has now firmly entrenched himself into an every week top ten fantasy football QB who you could argue has passed Tom Brady, Cam Newton, and maybe even Matt Ryan in the rankings. Those who brought him aboard as a backup or begrudgingly as their starter at first are being handsomely rewarded at this point. The good times should continue as Dalton surely will continue to fire away and accumulate the passing numbers he had hinted at previously.
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