On Monday Night against the New Orleans Saints, we got to see Andy Dalton operate as a fourth-down quarterback for the Carolina Panthers. While some might think that this was unbelievably unusual, there does feel to be a reason for that. Head coach Frank Reich also openly spoke about why it was that he kept putting Dalton in these situations, which is what we’ll talk about here.
Reich said, “There’s a lot of different things we could do, but I just feel very comfortable in Andy. And some of those things you just want to limit the exposure of Bryce to, and Bryce can do any of it, but you’ve got an experienced veteran.” Now, this was a little surprising. It does feel like he has more confidence in Dalton in these short-yardage fourth down situations over Young. Maybe that could be because of his size, or maybe he just thinks that experience can take over here. Regardless, Dalton did that twice. The first resulted in a false start and the other was a toss to Miles Sanders, which got a first down.
Andy Dalton Could Be Similar To Taysom Hill?
Reich later talked about how he thinks a similar way to how the Saints utilize Taysom Hill into their offense. While he made it clear that the two players are nothing alike, he thinks that he feels Dalton could provide a spark to the Panthers in some way, kind of like how Taysom sparks the Saints offensive unit. His full quote was, “There’s no golden rule that says he can’t come in and play a couple plays in the game. I mean, look at what the Saints do. I know Taysom Hill’s a different story. But why not do that to a lesser extend if it can be utilized in a positive way?”
For those of you that might be concerned with Young’s size at the quarterback position, this switch doesn’t make you feel any better. Young is only five-foot-10, 204 pounds, and the coaching staff might not want to send him on a quarterback sneak in these short-yardage situations due to the possibility of getting injured. There’s also the chance that Reich just likes to do this with his offense. For example, he did the same thing with Jacoby Brissett on the Indianapolis Colts.
The Move Could Help Bryce Young
Going into the positives of this move though, Andy Dalton being brought out there could indicate a quarterback sneak to the defense. If the defense starts to lock in on the sneak possibility, then the Panthers would have a plethora of other offensive plays to call to pick up a good first down. We’ll see what happens with this quarterback change between Dalton and Young down the line, but it’s certainly going to be interesting. One thing is for sure though, if the staff keeps putting Dalton in on fourth-down situations and they continue to fail to pick them up, it could be a problem. Fans will no doubt start to demand that Young hits the field when their team needs him the most.