Greg Cosell Offers Complete Analysis After Andy Dalton's Rookie Season

Greg Cosell, NFL analyst and senior producer at NFL Films, reflected on Andy Dalton's rookie season in comparison to his predraft analysis. Obviously Cosell will harp on Dalton's arm strength, something that Cosell weighs heavily on his analysis with quarterbacks. At the same time, Cosell writes, Dalton's other attributes has largely offset those questions regarding velocity.

Cosell, who praised offensive coordinator Jay Gruden's ability to work and develop Dalton, writes:

When I returned to Dalton last month and drilled down deeper, I was more impressed. Here’s why: Quarterbacks who are not strong, power throwers must have two attributes in order to compensate: anticipation and accuracy. And they must possess those traits to a highly refined degree to be top-level NFL signal callers. Dalton routinely displayed outstanding anticipation. There were many intermediate throws in which he pulled the trigger well before the receiver began his break. What must supplement that kind of anticipation is precise ball location. Dalton had it. Time and again, he hit the strike point, putting the ball right on his receivers’ hands.

Cosell concludes on Dalton, saying:

I will never minimize the value of arm strength. In fact, there have been quarterbacks whose arms have gotten stronger as their NFL careers have progressed (Tom Brady and Drew Brees, to name a couple). Perhaps that will happen with Dalton. But for right now, his ability to offset a lesser arm with highly developed execution of other necessary attributes sets him apart, especially early in his career.

Despite the fact that we put curses on anyone "dissing" our boys, this is probably the most accurate analysis of Dalton's skill set -- and intangibles -- written by Cosell.

Do you guys agree with his points?