In a successful and well-traveled NFL career, Andy Dalton had a stop with the New Orleans Saints.
It wasn’t the most memorable or the longest, but it was substantial time on the field for “The Red Rifle” with the Saints.
It came to mind again on Friday, when the Philadelphia Eagles surprisingly released Dalton after he’d spent a portion of this season as one of the backup QBs to Jalen Hurts.
Why Eagles Cut Andy Dalton
Dalton’s release wasn’t necessarily expected, but the Eagles did have a surplus of quarterbacks and evidently felt one of those roster spots could be used elsewhere.
The veteran Dalton wasn’t in the mix to start if Hurts remained healthy, and the Eagles went with a different look for their depth chart.
Tanner McKee, the tall right-handed passer, will be Hurts’ main backup. He has gotten limited starting experience in the NFL and is believed by some to be an eventual trade candidate, given that he’s well thought of around the league.
The Eagles’ QB3 will be Cole Payton, the athletic lefty rookie from North Dakota State. Payton is more of a project, but he’s got the right traits to succeed.
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.
Dalton went from Cincy 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.
He joined the Eagles for the 2026 season. Dalton will turn 39 on Oct. 29, and it’s not clear how much longer he may have left in the NFL.
Ex-Saints QB Suddenly Released by Eagles