Bengals QB Andy Dalton Hoping To Be Paid Like The “Face Of The Franchise”

Bengals QB Andy Dalton told reporters on Monday that believes he is the face of the franchise, and is hoping to be compensated as such.

“It’s a quarterback-driven league, so quarterbacks get rewarded a lot of money,” Dalton said. “For a lot of these quarterbacks, if you’re the quarterback of the team, you’re the face of the franchise. So these teams obviously believe in their guy and they’re going to pay him that way.”

Dalton was asked about potential comparisons for his next contract when he jokingly said, “(Joe) Flacco, (Aaron) Rodgers, (Drew) Brees. Who else is up there? Matt Ryan.” 

There is no question that impending free agent quarterbacks have the ability to cash in during the offseason. Joe Flacco bet on himself and walked away with a record contract after winning a Super Bowl and Bears Jay Cutler fared pretty well in recent contract before he was set to reach the free agent market.

However, the Bengals have said that this situation is a bit of a “dilemma” for them. Rumors have even surfaced that the team could look to draft another quarterback, but Dalton mentioned Monday that he doesn’t expect to have competition.

“From everything they’ve told me, they’re not bringing in anybody to compete,” Dalton said.

The Bengals signed veteran QB Jason Campbell a few months ago, so it appears as though they could hold on drafting another quarterback and see how Dalton does in 2014.

Dalton, 26, is entering the final year of his rookie contract and should be an interesting player to watch given that he has led Cincinnati to the playoffs in each of his first three years in the league. However, they have managed to lose in the first-round all three times.

Last year, Dalton completed 61.9 percent of his passes for a career-high 4,296 yards 33 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.