Before I go into this, don't get me wrong, I like Dalton. I think he has a great future ahead of him and I hope he can bring the championship to Cincy! Im only bringing this to light because he should be held to a high standard because he has the ability to be great.

BUT I feel like Dalton is not getting the fair share of criticism for his play in recent games. I think he has performed at ROY level, but not elite. He is definitely above an average QB, and the guy is a winner most importantly. To see where he fits permanently, only time will tell. Dalton has Kitna like qualities and very similar arm strength, but I truly think he will be a lot better then Kitna.

There have been inconsistencies on his part as well. Coming out of the draft, analyst question his arm strength and now I see why. Not to say he can't make it the NFL, he just cant make some of the NFL passes. I think Green with his unbelievable catches has masked these areas. For instance, why is the timing so off when it comes to throwing a deep ball to Simpson or Cadwell? His passes to them seemed to be off a little, either under thrown or just lobbed up for anyone to catch. I think I have only seen one deep pass caught on stride and that was to Cadwell at the end of the Baltimore game.

With all that said, I only have really two concerns with Dalton at this point.

Deep passes- Tend to be lobbed up or under thrown. I think once we develope a more consistant deep threat, excluding AJ, it will open the run and pass game more.

Intermediate throws (curls and comebacks) -  Durning game winning/ tying drives, theses passes seemed to be tipped off where the CB knows where the ball is rather than the WR. I think they should work out a better routes to throw during game winning/ tying drive that aren't high risk for Dalton.

Like I said before, Dalton has a chance to be great! I think we should hold at that standard and not baby him. We can't use the "rookie" excuse forever!