Cowboys signing QB Andy Dalton to one-year deal worth up to $7M
Former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton is signing a one-year deal worth up to $7 million that includes $3 million guaranteed with the Dallas Cowboys, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Dalton, released from the Bengals this week, already has a home in Dallas and doesn't even need to move. He played in college at nearby TCU.
Dalton, 32, had been the Bengals' primary starter since they selected him in the second round of the 2011 draft. He led Cincinnati to the playoffs five times, though the Bengals lost in the wild-card round each time, and is the franchise's career leader in touchdown passes.
Dalton gives the Cowboys an experienced backup behind Dak Prescott. Before the signings, the depth chart behind Prescott included Cooper Rush, Ben DiNucci, and Clayton Thorson.
The deal brings an end to what was a dramatic, on-again, off-again process with Dalton leaving his original team. In his first comments since being cut this week, Dalton said he believed the delayed timing of his release hindered his opportunities to join another team.
"This year there were a good amount of quarterbacks that were available," Dalton said when asked about potential trade options in a story published by Bengals.com on Friday night. "I think it would have worked out differently if I had been a free agent when the new league year started. I was still under contract and that hurt me."
The new league year and official opening of free agency was March 18. The Bengals, a traditionally conservative franchise on the open market, exhausted much of their available salary-cap space on new players.
To compound the situation, Cincinnati selected quarterback Joe Burrow with the first overall pick in the draft, a decision that had been speculated about since before the end of last season. The Bengals were unable to find a trade partner for Dalton in the ensuing days.
"I'm sure teams knew they the Bengals were going to take a quarterback No. 1 and they would release me and there was no reason to rush into anything," Dalton, who has yet to sign with another team, told Bengals.com
Dalton was set to earn $17.7 million in the final season of a six-year contract worth $96 million. After the Bengals went on a spending spree this summer, Cincinnati did not have the salary-cap space to keep Dalton and sign its incoming rookie class.
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