Andy Dalton just picked his new team—and it adds insult to injury to the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback situation
The Philadelphia Eagles placed Jalen Hurts on injured reserve and turned to a familiar face for help. The answer only deepened the misery in Philadelphia.
This is how you know it’s been a brutal season for the Philadelphia Eagles. The punches just refuse to stop rolling in.
Philadelphia released veteran quarterback Andy Dalton less than two weeks ago. Shortly after, Jalen Hurts landed on injured reserve with a blood clot issue. His entire season is, at this point, in question. And so the Eagles, in need of another body at quarterback, reportedly reached back out to Dalton about a return. He turned them down.
QB Andy Dalton turns down a return to the Philadelphia Eagles amid Jalen Hurts’ IR stint
“With starting quarterback Jalen Hurts out indefinitely, the Eagles have had to scramble to fill out the depth chart. Tanner McKee started on Sunday against the Panthers. They also have rookie Cole Payton, and they added Joe Milton from the Cowboys’ practice squad. They had 16-year veteran Andy Dalton, but the Eagles cut him nine days ago. They wanted to bring him back, but Dalton has politely declined, we’re told.”
— Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk
Oof. Consider the circumstances here. With Hurts on injured reserve, Dalton would presumably have had a prime chance to play at some point in Philadelphia. It’s probably safe to assume Tanner McKee would have started these first few weeks either way. But there was a starting opportunity — or something very close to it — looming. And Dalton didn’t want it.
He, instead, will head to Atlanta to compete with Tua Tagovailoa to be the No. 3 quarterback for the Falcons. Perhaps this is all apart of some endgame for Dalton. Maybe he wants to be on the “Alex Moran plan” from the fictional show Blue Mountain State: the character in the show prefers to be the backup and doesn’t want to actually play.
But the optics for Philly are tough. And given how the rest of this season has played out so far, it’s hard to imagine many will give them the benefit of the doubt on a turn of events like this.
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