As far as regular-season quarterbacks go, there have been many worse ones than Andy Dalton during his Cincinnati Bengals tenure. The former TCU Horned Frog helped the Bengals make five playoff appearances over nine seasons after the team drafted him No. 35 overall in 2011.

However, Dalton went 0-4 in the AFC Wild Card Round, all under head coach Marvin Lewis. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder missed Cincinnati's 2015 Wild Card loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers due to injury, which it lost 18-16.

Former Bengals cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, who played with them from 2010 to 2017, was not a fan of Dalton. 

"It’s one thing that’s on there that [expletive] us," he said when discussing Cincinnati's 12-4 2014 squad on Julian Edelman's "Games With Names" show. "[Expletive] quarterback. He could not take the pressure, bro.”

Edelman countered by saying Dalton had "good numbers," but Jones said “Look at the receivers he had.” The Bengals had seven-time Pro Bowler A.J. Green as well as other reliable targets like Tyler Boyd, Marvin Jones Jr., and Mohamed Sanu over the signal-caller's tenure.

Although Dalton topped 4,000 passing yards in two seasons and had 25-plus touchdowns four times, Cincinnati never scored more than 13 points in any of his four playoff losses. His postseason underperformance was part of a larger theme within the franchise, as it never won a playoff game from 1991 to 2020. 

That run of futility puts Cincinnati's current era into perspective. Although it hasn't made the playoffs since 2022, it made the Super Bowl and AFC Championship in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The last time it made it that far was when it lost the Super Bowl in the 1988 campaign.

Franchise quarterback Joe Burrow and head coach Zac Taylor helped turn the franchise around nearly immediately, as Taylor arrived in 2019 and Burrow in 2020. Burrow's injuries and declining defense have hindered the franchise recently, but the two deep playoff runs show what the squad is capable of with this core.

Burrow and star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase are signed through 2029, while fellow star wideout Tee Higgins is signed through 2028. That trio led the team in 2021 and 2022, so its championship window will be open for as long as they're there as long as Burrow stays healthy and the front office upgrades the defense. The Bengals finished 30th with 28.9 points allowed per game in 2025.

While the current squad isn't flawless, the team is still better off than when it couldn't buy a playoff win in Jones' era.