Marvin Lewis on Andy Dalton extending with Bengals

With news that Marvin Lewis is pushing for AJ Green to get a long-term extension, that has to bode well for his deal to get done soon if Andy Dalton is any indicator. Lewis has been pushing for awhile now to have Dalton locked up and become the franchise QB Lewis believes Dalton can be.

Here's what the Bengals head coach had to say about Dalton's extension:

"From when I started on this job, I thought it was important that we knew who the quarterback was going to be all the time," Lewis said. "We've been consistent with that. It's played well for us. If you look across the league, there're very few times you can go in and out of quarterbacks and that team ends up being successful.

"As the guys come into that huddle, they want to know who's leading them. It's our job as coaches always to put everybody in the right positions.  But it just takes some of the anxiety out of the way when they know who their quarterback is going to be and who the trigger point is all the time.

"We've been fortunate with that -- Jon (Kitna) the first year, Carson (Palmer) and now Andy to continue up and follow through. So I think it's a consistent message."

As for how long Dalton will play in this week's preseason opener vs. the Chiefs, Lewis said Tuesday that his signal-caller will only play in one or two series. The safe bet is on one series with three offensive lineman being out.