by Chris Goodin

“Pathetic”, “pitiful”, “choker” are three words used to describe Andy “Red Rifle” Dalton in the last two playoff appearances for the Bengals  As fantasy players, who cares about the NFL playoffs?  What matters is his scoring proficiency in the regular fantasy season and playoffs (wks 14,15,16).

He averaged 20.884 fantasy points per game in 2013 which put him as the 5^th highest point producer in all of football last year.  He only had one game of less than 10 fantasy points but managed to counteract that performance with 5 games of 27 or more points, including two in the fantasy playoffs.  In fact, he outscored Drew Brees when it mattered. 

The point is: Dalton gets criticized for his bumbling playoff deficiencies but gets absolutely no respect (Dangerfield reference) when it comes to fantasy circles.  His ADP from the good folks at My Fantasy League in 2013 was 115.33 or an equivalent 10^th round grade.  Comparatively, Cam Newton, who was the 4^th QB drafted in 2013 was selected in the 4^th round and was outscored by Dalton. Some names of QB’s drafted before Dalton: Rodgers, Brees, Manning, Newton, Brady, Ryan, Kaepernick, Stafford, Luck, Griffin, Wilson, Romo and Eli.   

Say what you want about him but his point production can’t be disputed.  In 2014′s early bird drafts, Dalton is currently being taken in the 11^th round at 124.42.  It’s nuts.  Don’t worry about Jason Campbell or A.J McCarron being the starter (at least in 2014).  Snap him up in the 9^th and be smugly satisfied that you snagged a top fantasy point producer.