Bengals Plan on Dealing Andy Dalton; Will It Be to Bears?
If the Bears are to end up with Andy Dalton as the quarterback to challenge Mitchell Trubisky, then apparently the mechanics of the move have been cleared to begin.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday the Bengals will work with Dalton "to facilitate a trade when the time is right." Rapoport cited an unnamed source with the Bengals who had been briefed on the plans.
"Everyone assumes they're going to take Joe Burrow or at the very least a quarterback, and this is something that's been communicated to Dalton," Rapoport reported.
The report said the Bengals highly respect what Dalton has done for them and they "... want to work with him and they're not going to do anything that puts him in a bad spot or that he does not agree with going forward."
In Dalton's 10th season, he was to take up $17.7 million of cap space with the Bengals according to Spotrac.com numbers, but only $200,000 will be absorbed by the team in case of a trade.
If this happens with the Bears, they would need to get Dalton a contract extension and spread his payment out over multiple years to keep the deal in line with their own salary cap situation, which currently sits at just $13.3 million.
The uncertainty surrounding Dalton had been whether the Bengals might want to keep him as a buffer until Burrow is up and ready to go, then use him as a backup. But the $17.7 million is too steep a price for this.
The draft pick compensation for the Bengals couldn't be too high from the Bears, either, likely a final day pick.
The Bears simply don't have the picks otherwise.
They have two picks in Round 2, another possible compensatory pick at the end of Round 4, pick Nos. 142 and 146 overall in Round 5, Pick No.s 177 and 181 in Round 6 and No. 211 in Round 7.
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