Andy Dalton disagrees with benching, annoyed Bengals didn't give him time to seek trade
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Andy Dalton isn’t happy the Cincinnati Bengals have decided to bench him.
But if he was going to be benched, he wishes head coach Zac Taylor had told him sooner, so he could have possibly sought a trade.
‘At least let me see if I could end up somewhere else’
The Bengals fell to 0-8 on Sunday after a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and on Tuesday — Dalton’s birthday — Taylor told the veteran he was giving rookie fourth-round draft pick Ryan Finley a chance to run the offense.
On Wednesday, Dalton unsurprisingly was not pleased with how things went down.
“It happened three hours before the trade deadline,” Dalton said, via ESPN’s Ben Baby. “I wish they would have, at least — if he was thinking about it — at least try to let me see if I could end up somewhere or at least see if there was interest in possibly getting traded.
“At that point, the way it was all handled, there wasn't enough time to even have that happen.”
There’s no way of knowing, of course, which teams, if any, would be willing to trade for Dalton. Perhaps the Miami Dolphins, who have two quarterbacks but don’t seem to be in love with either?
Focused on helping Finley
A second-round pick in 2011 who has started 128 games for Cincinnati since his rookie season, Dalton said once he got word of his benching his agent was “trying to figure out what we could do in those last remaining couple hours before the trade deadline.”
Dalton is in the fifth year of a six-year extension signed in 2014. His salary for this season is $16 million and next year is $17.5 million.
The 32-year-old wouldn’t speculate on what could happen after this season ends, and wants to help Finley in any way he can.
“Obviously there's a lot to come in the next eight weeks and beyond after this year,” he said. “I want to have an opportunity to play. I want to have an opportunity to be somewhere where I'm wanted.
“If that's here, great. If it's not, we'll see. Right now, that's not my focus. My focus is just playing my role on this team.”
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