5 Reasons Andy Dalton fits Chicago Bears more than Derek Carr
Know what feeds you
Fans are going to brush off the record of Carr due to the defense, but are going to cling to Dalton having a terrible 2019 despite losing a top ten pick in Jonah Williams and A.J. Green before the season.
They are also going to say that Carr had a better year in 2019, and he did even not have great weapons. That takes away the idea that Carr had a stud offensive line, with Rodney Hudson, an All-Pro center along with Kolton Miller, Trent Brown, and Gabe Jackson, who had excellent seasons. Richie Incognito had a great year and was brought back because this group propelled a running game that had Josh Jacobs in rookie of the year talk.
The Bengals started a different combination almost every week.
The argument for Carr will be that he did not have a star-level player to throw to, but, the reality is that Carr used to have an elite number one receiver. The Raiders traded him because he did not work out well with Carr.
Amari Cooper hit the ground running with the Dallas Cowboys, and is expected to break the bank this offseason. He is not an A.J. Green type talent, is he?
Well, with Dak Prescott as his quarterback, Amari Cooper has averaged 5.3 receptions for 76.6 yards per game. He also averaged a touchdown per game on 7.8 targets per game.
With Derek Carr, Cooper averaged 4.3 receptions per game for 61.2 yards per game and less than 0.2 touchdowns per game. Is Prescott that much better than Carr? His catchable target rate dropped over the past two years.
A.J. Green averaged 5.4 receptions for 80 yards and 0.6 touchdowns. Cooper with Prescott is about as productive as Green with Dalton. Cooper with Carr is a bit of a drop off from there.
The big difference is just the idea of trusting that player. Prescott has an aggressive rating of 18%, Dalton at 20%, which means they will throw into tight windows. Carr is at 11%, which shows that he does not trust his man in contested situations. He moves on to a safer option, even if it is not dynamic like Green or Cooper. Would this frustrate an Allen Robinson similar to how it frustrated Cooper? We know Trubisky will throw to Robinson even if he is not open.
Do not discount the offensive line and loss of A.J. Green when thinking of what happened to Dalton in 2019. He is a player who knows how to feed a big-time weapon and has proven to be more comfortable throwing it up for a threat such as Allen Robinson more than Carr.