Welcome to Chicago: Andy Dalton, Quarterback

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: March 16, 2021

Tuesday, the Bears signed QB Andy Dalton to a one-year, $10 million deal that could be worth as much as $3 million more in incentives. That dollar amount suggests that they’re looking at the Red Rifle as more than a backup, however:

If the #Bears trade Foles before March 20th, they recoup ~4M in cap savings due to his roster bonus structure.

Dalton’s 10M deal minus 4M savings is 6M, ~600k less than Foles was being paid. So BUQB swap.

*Maybe* there’s a plan here, but this isPace we’re talking about so…

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) March 16, 2021

So nothing’s set in stone.

While this is a disappointment to anyone hoping for Russell Wilson, it takes two sides to make a deal and the absence of one isn’t due to a lack of effort on the Bears’ part.

Chicago made “a very aggressive pursuit” of Seahawks QB Russell Wilson, per sources, and the Bears were told that Seattle is not trading him at this time.

The Bears were one of four teams Wilson’s agent named as a place of interest. Now Chicago has an agreement with Andy Dalton.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2021

The Bears made a very aggressive series of offers for Russell Wilson… and the Seahawks elected not to trade the QB. Once the Bears were convinced a trade wouldn’t happen, they moved on and signed Dalton. In theory they could still add another QB, likely via draft…

— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) March 16, 2021

As for Dalton himself, Bears OC Bill Lazor is certainly familiar with him, having served as Dalton’s QB coach in 2016 in Cincinnati and OC there the next two years. In 2016, Dalton completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 4206 yards, with 18 TDs and 8 INTs, good enough for a Pro Bowl appearance. The following year, Dalton’s completion percentage dropped to 59.9, yardage dropped to 3320, but TDs increased to 25. INTs also unfortunately increased to 12. In 2018, Dalton’s completion percentage rebounded a bit, to 61.9 and he threw for 2566 yards, with 21 TDs and 11 INTs before a thumb injury ended his season after 11 games.

Nobody is claiming Dalton is the answer here, but after being rebuffed by Seattle and seeing Fitzmagic end up in Washington, the Bears clearly felt that they had to do something. This doesn’t totally rule out a trade for Wilson, but at the very least, it does mean that if a trade were to happen, it wouldn’t happen until we get closer to training camp at the earliest. The more likely scenario for the Bears is to draft a QB next month and use Dalton as the bridge. So I;m not going to lose my mind over this the way a sizable chunk of the fan base is, even if I am slightly irked about the fact that they could’ve just signed Dalton last year instead of trading a 4th-round pick for Nick Foles.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

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