Dalton at top of B/R NFL 1000 Rankings for Week 13

Since losing A.J. Green and Giovani Bernard, Andy Dalton has struggled and in Week 12 against the Ravens, he couldn’t get anything going. The offensive line has had issues all season long, the running game is still bad and the Bengals always seem to play from behind. Much of that changed on Sunday against the Eagles.

The TCU product went 23 of 31 for 332 yards and two touchdown passes, including a beauty to Brandon LaFell. He was accurate in his decisions and he connected with Tyler Boyd, Cody Core and LaFell for a few deep passes that opened up the field for the Bengals. He didn’t have much support from the running game, and the offensive line was again shuffling, but he came up big in the clutch and that earned him the third best grade of the week in the newest B/R NFL 1000 rankings. In Week 12 he was the 885th best player, so that's quite the jump in one week.

Dalton wasn’t the highest ranked quarterback though, as Andrew Luck topped him after destroying the Jets on Monday Night Football, and other than those two, the best player was Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr., who is the best slot cornerback in the league and had a huge game against the Jaguars. The scout team at B/R had this to say about Dalton's performance:

Andy Dalton, on the other hand came, out of nowhere. The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has never had a better first half than the one he had against the Philadelphia Eagles. Dalton's career has been defined by his inability to throw receivers open or react competently to pressure. Against Philadelphia, however, he repeatedly delivered perfect passes to tightly covered receivers downfield despite facing pressure in the pocket. Dalton missed a couple of easier plays and didn't have to do much in the second half. Had he continued to play the way he did in the first half, he would have comfortably been the league's top-ranked quarterback this week.

Dalton got 82 points, with high grades in both accuracy and pressure categories. His previous highest score was 71 in weeks 2 and 7. Sunday’s effort was a huge upgrade from what we’d seen from him thus far in the season and everybody noticed.

No other Bengal was among the top 50 overall, but several players were high in their position rankings. Carlos Dunlap, the guy everybody around the league forgets when talking about the best defensive linemen in the NFL, ranked only behind Khalil Mack, who had a huge game against the Bills and is putting up a Defensive Player of the Year caliber season. Somehow Dunlap got 26 points in the pass rush category, out of 25, which should tell you all you need to know about the show he put on against the Eagles. Fellow defensive lineman Geno Atkins was the fourth highest ranked defensive tackle after a game in which he could have easily had two or three sacks. LaFell was the 11th best wide receiver, above big names like Odell Beckham Jr. and Antonio Brown. Andrew Whitworth continued to be recognized as one of the premier tackles in the NFL and was ranked eight. Vontaze Burfict, despite an outstanding game was "only" the fourth highest ranked 4-3 outside linebacker, which, to me, seems quite low. Vincent Rey was seventh. Free safety George Iloka, despite the dropped interceptions, was the eighth best at his position.

Only one Bengals player who played on Sunday was in the bottom of their standings, and it's the usual suspect: Michael Johnson. Interestingly, Cedric Ogbuehi was ranked as the 32nd "best" right tackle of the week, with a score of 63, but, he didn't play one snap on the afternoon. So, we're not sure how that checks out.

Here are the ranked Bengals players and you can check the full rankings here: