Andy Dalton isn't a quarterback who receives a ton of publicity during the offseason, but that could change soon thanks to Brandon LaFell, who sent the Dalton hype train into full speed with some comments he made on Wednesday.
The newest Bengals receiver compared Dalton to Tom Brady.
"Everybody respects [Dalton] just like everybody respects Brady," LaFell said, via the Bengals' official website. "How Brady demands the best out of everybody and Andy is doing the same thing. Both of those guys are smart guys. Both get the offense in the right play. They always get the ball to the right person at the right time."
Before signing with the Bengals in April, LaFell spent two seasons in New England, where he caught passes from Brady. As you can imagine, it's not easy for another quarterback to impress LaFell, but Dalton has managed to do it.
Not only is the Red Rifle "better than advertised," but LaFell also added that Dalton does pretty much everything well.
"Ball placement, accuracy, how fast he gets the ball out," LaFell said. "His command of the huddle. The way he always has us in the right play. The way he demands everybody to play to a certain level."
LaFell wasn't ready to call Dalton the next Tom Brady, but he was close.
"If we continue to take the steps we're making, Andy could be a similar player like that," LaFell said, via ESPN.com. "It's two different offenses, but both of those guys are winners."
I'm assuming LaFell is using the term "winner" very loosely here, because the one big thing that Dalton hasn't been able to do is channel his inner-Tom Brady during the postseason.
The Bengals' quarterback is 0-4 in the playoffs, just in case you've somehow forgotten, even though I'm sure you haven't. To put that in perspective, Brady had 14 postseason wins before he lost his fourth playoff game.
LaFell doesn't seemed to be worried about the Bengals' playoff losing streak, at least not right now. At this point, LaFell is only concerned with learning the playbook, something that Dalton's helping with.
"Being around a good quarterback makes everybody else on the field job that much easier," LaFell said. "With them having so much knowledge of the game, knowledge of the offense and playing with a high level of confidence, it kind of slows the game down for everybody else. And for me coming in learning the playbook, he's helping me out in the huddle, helping me out off the field. It's making me go out there and know the offense now and just going out there and playing fast and not worrying about anything else because he's so good."
