Former Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason is the guy that replaced Ken Anderson, the team's quarterback that led the Bengals to their first ever Super Bowl. Esiason would largely surpass or at least equal Anderson in many ways, quarterbacking one of the more exciting offenses in team history and taking the team back to the Super Bowl several years later. Both went to the Pro Bowl four times (Boomer once did it as a New York Jet), earned one first-team All-Pro honors and MVP award.
After Esiason, when Mike Brown took over as the team's President after his father passed away, the Bengals proudly began instituting a depressingly long period of losing that began with failed draft picks in David Klingler and Akili Smith, combined with post-prime veteran quarterbacks. In fairness, I loved Jeff Blake.
Esiason was asked about Bengals quarterbacks at the 13th Annual Boomer Esiason Sporting clays Pro-Am Benefiting Cystic Fibrosis Research. While feeling sympathy for Carson Palmer, who wants out like Boomer did after the team hired David Shula as the head coach in the early 90s, Esiason's biggest question about Andy Dalton is his mental makeup, especially now that Palmer is done here.
"(Palmer)’s checked out of Cincinnati hotel. He doesn’t want to deal with Bengaldom. I sympathize with him. I hope Mike tries to do the right thing even though with me he waited a year. I don’t know if Dalton can withstand what we all have gone through. We’ll see. I wouldn’t have high expectations for this year though."