Shipley Can See Similarities Between Dalton and McCoy

Both Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and Browns quarterback Colt McCoy played college football in Texas -- Dalton for the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs and McCoy for the University of Texas Longhorns. They were both wildly successful in college and both ended their careers as two of the winningest quarterbacks in NCAA history. 

And, now that they're both in the NFL, they will have both had the pleasure of throwing passes to Jordan Shipley.

Shipley and McCoy were close friends growing up. They both decided to take their talents to Austin to play for the Longhorns, where they were roommates. Shipley, who plays guitar, even sang a song at McCoy's wedding.

McCoy was drafted by the Browns and Shipley was drafted by the Bengals, both AFC North teams. They went from best friends on the same team to best friends on rival teams.

Shipley spent a year getting thrown to by Carson Palmer, but in the wake of Palmer's retirement, the Bengals brought in a new quarterback, Dalton.

Dalton is set to be the first rookie quarterback to start the season for the Cincinnati Bengals on opening day since Greg Cook did in 1969. The NFL isn't necessarily very kind to rookie quarterbacks taking over struggling teams, but even though there are bound to be some growing pains, Shipley sees some similarities in his new quarterback and his college quarterback.

"There are definitely some similarities," says Shipley of the comparison between McCoy and Bengals rookie quarterback Andy Dalton. "They have the same quick release. They thrown a real accurate ball. They're really smart."

McCoy and Dalton will run similar offenses in the NFL and considering the way McCoy played in the preseason (he played well, if you didn't watch him) I would welcome any comparison between the two.

I like Colt McCoy and I wish him luck in Cleveland (I don't wish Cleveland luck, though... so I don't know how this works), but I would like to see Dalton run the West Coast offense better on Sunday. 

We won't see the two of them on the same field at the same time until Sunday, but you can watch these videos to see if you can find the similarities yourself.