For a guy whose career began with a long Cincinnati Bengals tenure, Andy Dalton is becoming quite familiar with the NFC South Division.
He spent time with the New Orleans Saints and then with the Carolina Panthers, and now he’s back.
It was reported on Monday that Dalton is signing with the Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons have reportedly released Cooper Rush in a corresponding move, so it’s one veteran quarterback brought in for another on the Atlanta depth chart.
How Move Impacts Saints
The reality is that Dalton signing with the Falcons doesn’t mean much to the Saints.
The Saints weren’t in the market for a veteran backup at this point. They have Tyler Shough starting, Spencer Rattler behind him and Zach Wilson as QB3.
A case could be made that Dalton would be an upgrade, but if New Orleans felt that way, they had more than a week to sign him since he was released by the Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s also unlikely, but not impossible, that Dalton will actually play for the Falcons this season.
Unless this move points toward a Tua Tagovailoa trade — which there’s no indication that it does — Dalton probably slots in as the QB3 in Atlanta. Yes, the Falcons’ two lefty quarterbacks are both injury-prone, so maybe Dalton has to play at that point. But if Atlanta gets that far down its depth chart, the Falcons likely won’t be threatening to win the NFC South anyway.
Andy Dalton With Saints
Dalton played for the Saints in the 2022 NFL season.
That was after he began his career with nine years with the Cincinnati Bengals, for whom he started 133 games. The Saints were his third post-Cincy stop.
Dalton went from Cincinnati to the Dallas Cowboys, and he made nine starts there in 2020.
Then in 2021, Dalton went to the Chicago Bears and got six starts.
The Saints were Dalton’s team in 2022, and it was his last full season of his career. He started 14 games and went 6-8. Dalton completed 66.7% of his passes for 2,871 yards with 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
New Orleans also had Jameis Winston start three games that season, but it was Dalton who got the lion’s share of the work — along with the occasional pass by Taysom Hill.
The Saints did win a memorable 39-32 game that season over the Seattle Seahawks, in which Dalton threw one touchdown to Chris Olave. But that game was really about Hill, who completed one pass for a 22-yard touchdown to Adam Trautman and then ran nine times for 112 yards and three more TDs, including a 60-yard score.
Dalton left the Saints after that year and went to the NFC South rival Carolina Panthers, and he started seven games there over three seasons.
The “Red Rifle” joined the Eagles this season, but they released him in the lead-up to Week 5 to let Tanner McKee be their clear backup QB to Jalen Hurts — and now McKee is starting after a blood clot issue arose for Hurts.
Ex-Saints QB Signs With New NFC South Division Rival