It’s not exactly a fair comparison because throughout the years the teams have had different personnel and have run different offenses....also only Dalton started his actual first 4 games on the team....but the comparison is something to chew on.

Ken Anderson 1971 (games 5, 6, 7) 1972 (game 1)

Reached the 100 yard mark 3 times.

Had 2 games of a QB rating over 100, and 2 games under 50 rating.

Had 2 games of 67% and 70%, and 2 games of 31% and 48%.

So 2 terrible games, and 2 great games – no consistency.

Boomer Esiason 1984 (games 3, 4, 7, 9)

Attempted 24 and 26 passes his first 2 starts, but only totaled 8 attempts his next 2 starts.

Of those 2 starts where he attempted 20+ passes he had 2 INT’s in the first and 2 TD’s in the second.

1 good start, 1 bad start, 2 short starts.

David Klingler 1992 (games 12, 13, 14, 15)

Only reached 50% completions in 1 of his 4 starts.

Had 100+ yards in 3 of the starts, but 61 yards in his 4th start.

Was the only QB on this list to have more TD’s than INT’s in his first 4 starts.

Akili Smith 1999 (games 4, 5, 6, 7)

Chucked up 42 and then 38 passes in 2 of those starts, and got 200+ yards in those 2 games.

Only once had a QB rating higher than 65, though.

Carson Palmer 2004 (games 1, 2, 3, 4)

Had a great first start with 248 yards, 2 TD’s and a rating of 105.2, and 9.2 yards per attempt.

Followed that up with 1 TD to 6 INT’s over his next 3 starts.

Reached 248, 147, 316, 164 yards.

Had 3 TD’s to 7 INT’s.

Had 1 great start (rating of 105.2), and then 3 bad starts (rating below 54)

Andy Dalton 2011 (games 1, 2, 3, 4)

Had a solid first start with a 102.4 rating, 67% completions and 1 TD.

Had a great 2nd start with 332 yards (most of any QB listed) and 2 TD’s and a 107 rating.

Had an abysmal 3rd start with 157 yards 0 TD’s and 2 INT’s, and a QB rating of 40.8

Had a good 4th start 291 yards 1 TD, 2 INT

Had 1 great start, 2 good starts, and 1 bad start

        Cmp...att....%....yd...td..int..y/a..TD%...INT%..Rate (YR1)

Kenny A..38....69...55%...395...3...3...5.7...4%...4%....70.6

Boomer...29....58...50%...343...2...2...5.9...3%...3%....62.9

David K..47....98...48%...530...3...2...5.4...3%...2%....66.3

Akili S..63...122...52%...627...2...3...5.1...2%...2%....55.6

Carson...84...154...55%...875...3...7...5.7...2%...5%....77.3

Andy D...72...124...58%...861...4...4...6.9...3%...3%....76.9

Andy Dalton has the most TD’s, best completion %, and best yards per attempt.

Kenny Anderson leads in TD% while Carson leads in INT% (amazingly Akili & Klingler are the lowest on INT %....who knew?).

Carson leads in passing yards and QB rating (barely beating Dalton in both categories).

Dalton has certainly started well for a QB. But one has to hope that he doesn’t have a low ceiling that he reaches early (and thus plateaus), but that he can has a high upside that he is still reaching for.