Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton is entering the final year of his contract, leading to all kinds of musing about how the Bengals should handle a potential extension and Dalton’s overall ceiling as an NFL quarterback.
That makes this year a pretty big deal for Dalton and he’s responding to it by trying to perfect his throwing motion this offseason. At the suggestion of the team, Dalton has met with former major league pitcher and quarterback tutor for Tom Brady and others Tom House this offseason. For five days, House studied Dalton’s mechanics by recording every movement he made while throwing the ball and suggesting changes that Dalton can make to be a more efficient thrower.
“The motion is still mine. It’s not like it’s completely changed,” Dalton said, via the team’s website. “We tweaked a few things just to make sure all of your momentum, all your force, everything you have is going toward the target of where you’re trying to throw. We tweaked it a little bit. It happens so quickly, I don’t think the average person will notice it. There was stuff that was new to me. It’s science-based and applying it. But once I got used to it, it was fine.”
The hope is that cleaning things up will allow Dalton to get the most out of every throw, including the deep balls that have long been perceived as a problem that Dalton has to overcome, while also giving Dalton “a fix he can do immediately” when things get out of sorts instead of waiting until film study to recognize where things were going wrong. Offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said he thinks Dalton is “on the cusp” of good things and we’ll find out soon enough if his offseason work pushes him even closer to that goal.
