Around this time every year, the typical stories undergo a good dusting from feathered brooms and aerosol cleaners. After spending an entire offseason hoping for "change", the base must be reinvigorated to believe in their starting quarterback again. It happened in 2012, then again in 2013. Jay Gruden usually leads that charge, praising Dalton's ability to throw the football. "You can never judge improvement until we start playing games," Gruden said during camp in '13. "He is more confident in his anticipation. He's always been accurate but he has a better feel in what we do with the concepts." Dalton translated that by surpassing career-highs in yards passing (4,293) last year, touchdowns scored (35... 33 passing) and passer rating (88.8).
This year's Dalton-is-improving story comes from Hue Jackson (the team's newest offensive coordinator after Gruden departed for Washington):
"I've been impressed with him since I've gotten to be the coordinator, but I've been really impressed with him over the last couple of days," Jackson said via Bengals.com. "I think hes really starting to buy into the urgency, getting the ball out of his hands and making great decisions."
At this rate, Dalton may break league records now that he's firmly addressed several team records... like yards passing and touchdowns thrown. Though the old perspective goes... he dominates clean-up games against inferior defenses but struggles under pressure against teams considered equal. Those perceptions will exist until they don't. Yet there's more hope in Dalton's progressive abilities that it may translate.
