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bengals September 18, 2017
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Bengals players reportedly in ‘open rebellion,’ want Kaepernick as QB

One of the lasting headlines from the opening weeks of the NFL season has been the sloppy play, most notably from the quarterback position.

The reasons for this range from college football playbooks being far different than the NFL, less practice time under the new collective bargaining agreement, and just a straight up lack of talent.

Regardless of the reason, there’s a bunch of bad quarterbacks stinking up the joint through the first couple weeks and it feels a lot more glaring than usual.

Between Brian Hoyer, Blake Bortles, Jacoby Brissett, and DeShone Kizer, football watchers have been treated to some truly terrible performances.

But all those teams were gonna suck anyways.

It’s not really surprising that those quarterbacks have put in terrible showings, in the immortal words of Dennis Green, “they are who we thought they were!”

This is not true for the Cincinnati Bengals. Coming off a disappointing 6-9-1 record after four straight playoff losses, capped off by an especially brutal playoff loss to the Steelers in January 2016, the Bengals were hoping to bounce back and be in contention bolstered by a good defense and a bunch of weapons on offense.

The issue here is that Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton seems to have absolutely fallen apart. After years of being pretty good but not great, the Bengals were hoping the Red Rocket would take THE LEAP and lead them to the promised land, or at least past the first round of the NFL playoffs. That has not happened.

Dalton has thrown 4 interceptions and 0 touchdowns through the first two games, home losses to both the Ravens and the Texans.

The Bengals have scored a total of 9 points in those games. Their offense is historically impotent as the Bengals became the first team since the 1939 Philadelphia Eagles to open the season with two home games and fail to score a touchdown in both.

Pro Football Talk is reporting the Bengals are now “in the throes of ‘near mutiny'” with players wanting Andy Dalton to get canned. The players also have some ideas as to who should step in for Dalton… Colin Kaepernick.

From PFT,

“The team insists that quarterback Andy Dalton is safe. But the feeling within the locker room, we’re told, is that the leash isn’t quite so long, and that if the struggles continue under new offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, the next one to go could be Dalton… There’s a feeling among some of the players that the Bengals should go off the board and consider bringing in Colin Kaepernick.”

It’s a tired cliche but the NFL is a results-oriented business. You have to think that some team will take a flyer on Kaepernick if those results continue to be terrible.

Then again… expecting NFL owners to employ a dude who has been incredibly outspoken about racial inequality in the country is probably not the safest bet.

Last season Kaepernick threw 16 touchdowns to 4 interceptions (the same amount Dalton has through 2 games) and was one play away from being a Super Bowl winner, dude is a good football player.

It is looking more and more likely that Andy Dalton is not a good football player. These are just the facts.

Whether it’s the Bengals or some other team, the buzz around Kaepernick is growing. Tom Brady, not exactly the beacon of social justice in America, chimed in over the weekend saying he hopes Kaepernick returns to the league,

“I sure hope so. I’ve always watched him and admired him, the way that he’s played. He was a great young quarterback. He came to our stadium and beat us and took his team to the Super Bowl in 2012. He accomplished a lot in the pros as a player. And he’s certainly qualified, and I hope he gets a shot.”

https://twitter.com/fivefifths/status/909591557510193153

No matter what you think about Kaepernick’s protest (although if you don’t like it you’re probably trash) dude deserves to be playing in the NFL.

He’d be a hell lot better than the motley crew of guys throwing ducks right now.