According to Pro Football Talk, the Cincinnati Bengals almost lost their chance to select their new quarterback, Andy Dalton, with the No. 35 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.
According to PFT, the Seattle Seahawks general manager, John Schneider, thought long and hard about selecting Dalton in the first round with the No. 25 pick. However, Schneider believed that the team couldn't pass up on Alabama offensive tackle James Carpenter in the first round.
"We debated with Andy Dalton, there’s no question about it. But I think we all felt like we were at a point in our development where we couldn’t pass on a starting tackle right now," Schneider said on the Kevin Calabro show on 710 ESPN Radio.
"Quite honestly, we’d like to have a guy, especially a rookie, be more of a developmental type and a guy more like Aaron Rodgers and sit for a year or two. So that was really the only point in the draft where there was a guy where we were like, ‘There he is, that’s a very viable option.’"
Luckily, the Seahawks and then the Bills passed on Dalton, allowing him to drop into the Bengals' lap. One of the reasons that Schneider passed on Dalton is that he would want his new quarterback to be developed behind a veteran. With Carpenter, the Seahawks would have a player that could make an immediate impact on the team, but with Dalton, they wouldn't get a player that would make an impact for some time.
"I think by choosing Carpenter that we were helping our team immediately, whereas with Andy we would have wanted a veteran in there with him anyway," Schneider said.
The Bengals will likely pick up a veteran quarterback to help Dalton along the way, and even though Dalton may not make an immediate impact on the team, there's no question that he's the quarterback of the future.