5 Reasons Andy Dalton fits Chicago Bears more than Derek Carr
1. Instant fit with the offense
If the Bears do add Andy Dalton, he will not be guaranteed a starting spot. However, he would have a good chance of winning it. The biggest thing that Dalton would have going for him is his familiarity with the offense.
No, Matt Nagy is not going to overhaul his entire offense because of the hire of Bill Lazor. However, Andy Dalton is very familiar with Bill Lazor’s concepts, having worked with him for two seasons in Cincy.
The biggest takeaway from Dalton and Lazor was that Dalton excelled in the RPO game. One reason the Bears hired Lazor is because he was able to take Dalton, who played in a traditional offense for years with the Bengals and took him back to his TCU days with RPO action. It made Dalton much more comfortable.
Matt Nagy has been looking to incorporate more RPOs in his offense. One of the few times he did not knock Mitch Trubisky throughout the year was his decisiveness on RPOs. Is his familiarity the end all, be all? Absolutely not. Will Dalton excelling in RPOs be something Lazor will bring up? Yes. The reality is that we do not know how Carr will work in a new offense, and he does not have that familiar.
So, throughout their careers, neither separate themselves statistically. Carr is the younger option, but with that comes a higher price tag, but in cap space, trade value, and long-term commitment if things go south.
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Beyond that, Dalton has accomplished much more, and has playoff experience, albeit not wonderful, it is experience that Carr lacks. He has shown that when he has a healthy A.J. Green and a healthy offensive line that he can get a team there, Carr has his star receiver traded because the two could not get on the same page.
Both of these players are huge risks, and neither is likely the answer. If you had to choose between Derek Carr and Andy Dalton, Dalton is a better choice.