One thing Andy Dalton always has been is coachable, so he is not about to start disagreeing with his offensive coordinator now.
Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden recently said the former TCU quarterback needs to improve “everything.” Dalton improved his completion percentage, touchdown passes and passing yards from his rookie season to his second season, and said he believes he’ll take another step this year.“The biggest thing is you want to get better every year,” said Dalton, who has taken the Bengals to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. “I feel like I got better from my first year to my second year. So I expect to make the same improvements. I expect to get better in everything I’m doing. I think that comes with experience; it comes with playing.“His comments weren’t far off.”Gruden was pointed in an interview with Cincinnati radio station WLW-AM, saying of Dalton, “There’s not one part of his game that he doesn’t need to improve. … He has to get better in every phase — scramble ability, foot quickness, accuracy, deep accuracy, short, anticipation. He’s got a long way to go. He’s done some great things for a second-year quarterback, won a lot of games and thrown some good touchdown passes, but we feel like he has not come close to his potential. That’s our job to get it out of him. And he knows he’s got to play better, and we all do.”Dalton has heard questions about his arm strength his entire career. Though he takes umbrage with the criticism, Dalton had only 37 completions of at least 20 yards after having 48 as a rookie. He averaged only 6.95 per attempt, right at the league average but the second-worst among the top-16-rated passers.“Arm strength is one thing, but getting the timing down on all the different stuff is an area I’ve got to improve,” Dalton said. “There are some deeper throws this year I wish I could have had back that I felt like I could have hit. That’s something this off-season when we get back to OTAs, working with everybody, that we’ll hopefully get fixed and we’ll get moving. That’s one of the biggest things is just making these improvements year to year.”Michael explainsFor the first time in 50 years, there is a good possibility that the first round will not include a running back. Texas A&M’s Christine Michael might be the best one in this draft. He also might be the most exasperating.The latest misadventure for Michael came at the NFL Scouting Combine. Although he ran a 4.54 in the 40, had 27 bench-press reps and a 43-inch vertical, Michael overslept and missed two team interviews.“I had the flu; I was losing my voice; I had real bad headaches,” said Michael, who had only 88 carries, was ejected from the Sam Houston game and didn’t play a down in the Cotton Bowl. “I didn’t want to mention it to anybody. I wanted to get myself clear for Sunday [for the workout]. I was taking a lot of NyQuil, a lot of Mucinex and a lot of different Tylenols and things like that to make sure I was OK for Sunday. They had knocked me out, and it snuck up on me, and I overslept after I had taken a lot of NyQuil to prepare myself for Sunday. It all worked out bad it seems like, but I apologized for it.”Missing HortonDaryl Washington doesn’t have anything against his new head coach or defensive coordinator. Heck, the Cardinals linebacker hasn’t even met Bruce Arians or Todd Bowles yet.But if Washington had his way, Ray Horton still would be in Arizona.Horton, who was the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator, interviewed for the head coaching job after Ken Whisenhunt was fired. But the Cardinals went with Arians, and Horton, a rising star in the coaching ranks, left to become the Browns’ defensive coordinator.“I was kind of disappointed about it, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” said Washington, who expects to meet with Arians and Bowles sometime later this month. “I think Ray Horton did a great job with the defense, and we were gaining a lot of respect around the league. Unfortunately, there had to be a change. That’s the nature of the business.”The former TCU star made a name for himself in his third NFL season. He earned his first Pro Bowl berth and should have been All-Pro after making a career-high 140 tackles, nine sacks, 14 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, an interception and a fumble recovery. Washington’s fear, when Bowles was hired, was that the Cardinals would switch to the 4-3.“We’re sticking with the 3-4, so that’s a positive,” Washington said. “Now, we just need a few new additions on the defensive side of the ball.”Information from The Sports Xchange was used in this report.Charean Williams, 817-390-7760 Twitter: @NFLCharean
