Teams are gearing up around the league as preseason play is kicking off for all clubs. This week, I joined SB Nation’s “The Tony Desiere Show” on their radio network to talk about the Cincinnati Bengals and preview the 2016 season, which is right around the corner.
Some of the topics Tony and I discussed have been commonplace with the team this offseason, which are the issues stemming from the team’s Wild Card loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Vontaze Burfict’s suspension, Jeremy Hill’s fumbling issues and the team’s track record of failure in the postseason. Karlos Dansby’s arrival and effect on the club was another topic we touched on.
On the positive side, Desiere noted the play of both Andy Dalton and AJ McCarron last season. In one part of the interview, he asked me just how well McCarron played in spot duty for Dalton in 2015.
“You know, there were times that he played pretty well, and there were other times when people thought he played pretty well, but if you look at some of the stats in those games, there were a number of consecutive drives where there were some dry spells on offense and he couldn’t complete a lot of passes,” I said. “I think, all in all, for a guy getting his feet wet, getting his first starts in the NFL and being a young quarterback, he played about as well as you could have asked him to play.”
McCarron was filling in for Dalton and had the team in position to win in that playoff game, so, I think he played about as well as you could have expected in that situation. Tyler Eifert was out of a couple of games at the end of the season, so he didn’t have that big weapon in a couple of games and that could explain some of the issues. But, overall, McCarron played about as well as he could have and made a name for himself as being one of the better backup quarterbacks in the league.
Desiere then queried about Dalton and the progress he showed in 2015, staging the often-asked question of: What changed for Andy Dalton?
Hue Jackson, having Tyler Eifert back healthy, Marvin Jones back healthy and Dalton’s offseason preparation were all among my answers. Dalton worked with quarterback guru, Tom House last offseason, as he did once again this offseason and it’s clear working with his receivers during their own little workouts and really getting into the playbook and believing in himself all helped. We saw a huge jump in production from 2014 to 2015 because of those factors.
You can listen to the show below and follow The Tony Desiere Show on Twitter @TonyDRadio, as well as SB Nation Radio @SBNationRadio! Thanks to Tony’s crew for hosting me on the show.