Andy Dalton may or may not be in tune with the depths of the frustration Chicago Bears fans feel with the team’s quarterback situation.
But the Bears tagged him in a welcome post on Twitter on Wednesday that received hundreds of mostly scathing comments. So it would be hard for Dalton not to be generally aware of the reaction of Bears fans to his arrival on a one-year, $10 million deal in free agency this week after the team’s flirtation with trading for the Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson.
Dalton, 33, of course wants to sway their opinion.
“Hopefully everybody gets a chance to see who I am as a player, as a person, see what we’re going to be able to do with this organization,” Dalton said Thursday in his introductory video news conference. “I’m excited about the opportunity. Obviously there’s been a lot of talk, but I’m not worried about any of that.”
The assurances Dalton has heard from inside Halas Hall are louder than the outside noise for now anyway.
The 10-year NFL veteran said the Bears told him he was their starter, even though he joins a quarterbacks room with veteran Nick Foles and there’s a possibility the Bears could draft a longer-term solution at quarterback next month.
“That was one of the reasons why I wanted to come here,” Dalton said of starting. “So every conversation I’ve had has been that, so that’s the assurance that I’ve gotten.”
Dalton said he had other options in free agency coming off a season when he stepped in for injured Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, started nine games and threw for 2,170 yards, 14 touchdowns, eight interceptions and an 87.3 passer rating.
But he was drawn to the starting job on a Bears team he believes can be competitive. His previous relationship with offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, who was his Cincinnati Bengals quarterbacks coach in 2016 and offensive coordinator in 2017-18, also was a draw. Dalton said he kept in contact with Lazor over the years and spoke to him as well as general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy as he was considering joining the team.
If he’s turned off by the possibility of being a bridge to a younger quarterback — after all, Mike Glennon believed he was the starter until the Bears drafted Mitch Trubisky in 2017 — Dalton didn’t let on.
“I’ve been the starter and helped the backup throughout my career,” he said. “I think it’s what you can do to help the next guy. We’ll see if that’s the case and what we do in the draft. But I’ve got no problem with that.”
Pace and Nagy didn’t speak with the media at the Thursday news conference, which occurred just minutes after the Buffalo Bills announced Trubisky was signing a one-year deal to back up starter Josh Allen.
So there are still many questions to be answered publicly about the offer for Wilson the Seahawks rejected, the reasons they were attracted to Dalton and the possibility they add another quarterback to the mix.
Dalton revealed one interesting nugget about the decision-making: He knew “everything” about the Bears’ efforts to trade for Wilson, the Seahawks’ seven-time Pro Bowler.
“I was in constant contact with everybody throughout this whole process,” Dalton said. “And when it wasn’t happening and this worked out for both of us to come together and for me to be a part of this team, I was ecstatic because I was hoping that was going be the case.”
Dalton said he watched a lot of Bears film as he was preparing to make his decision and liked the mix of veteran and young players on the team. He said he already has spoken with several of his teammates, including Foles, though he hadn’t connected yet with top wide receiver Allen Robinson, on whom the Bears recently placed their franchise tag.
Dalton missed the front end of free agency last year because the Bengals held on to him until after they drafted LSU quarterback Joe Burrow with the top pick and didn’t sign to be the Cowboys’ backup until May. He said he learned a lot from an up-and-down couple of seasons, including in 2019 when the Bengals benched their three-time Pro Bowler after an 0-8 start. He also dealt with a concussion and COVID-19 after taking over for Prescott in 2020.
“I’ve grown as a person and grown as a player and I’ve learned a lot from all of these experiences,” he said. “So I don’t take for granted the opportunity to play and to be the starter, and so that’s another reason why this is so attractive. You’ve got a chance to come in and be the starter from Day 1 and to bring a lot of my experience and a lot of what I can do to this team and this organization and be really productive.”
Dalton touted his experience more than once as something he brings to the table for the Bears. He has started 94 more games in his career than Trubisky. And he led five straight Bengals playoff teams starting with his rookie year in 2011, though he is 0-4 in the playoffs and the last winning team he was a part of was five years ago.
Pace and Nagy don’t need to hold a news conference to know the Bears are counting on Dalton to be a more reliable option than Trubisky or Foles was during their back-to-back 8-8 seasons.
And while reliable might not be the adjective that makes Bears fans happy at the moment, Dalton believes he also can help the Bears be balanced and exciting.
“I’d love for this to be the last place that I play,” Dalton said. “I’d love to finish my career here and get established. For me, this is the second half of my career. I want to play really good football. I want to help this team win a lot of games. I want to bring some excitement to this city.”
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