Jim Owczarski

jowczarski@enquirer.com

On Thursday, The Enquirer published “Being Andy Dalton: The Bengals quarterback loosens up” in the run up to the start of training camp. The piece focused on Dalton off the field and his emergence as a franchise quarterback on it.

That left some interesting stories on the cutting room floor, including how Dalton came to be a Bengal. Read on to see which QB the Bengals would have taken had he been available, a draft day trade that was nixed and just how impactful Carson Palmer’s departure was on the locker room.

Marvin Lewis saw the seeds of Dalton’s potential indispensability when the quarterback was leading a then-underdog Texas Christian University program to two BCS-busting bowl appearances and a Rose Bowl victory.

Leading up to the 2011 draft, then Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden was in his office in Paul Brown Stadium, reviewing film of college quarterbacks. Palmer had told the team he wasn’t coming back, and the first-year offensive coordinator had to assume its truth – so he was looking for a quarterback that could run his offense as a rookie.

“We were looking for somebody to come in and start Year 1, and that’s not easy to do,” Gruden said.

Lewis stopped in.

Hey Jay, did you see the TCU kid?

Gruden admitted he hadn’t gotten to him yet.

You may want to take a look at him. I think you’ll like him.

Gruden turned on the tape, and couldn’t tear himself away.

“It was like binging on Netflix,” he said.

Gruden pored through every game Dalton played, noting his progressions, handling the ball under center and in the shotgun.

As his offensive coordinator did that, Lewis gave himself a history lesson. Beginning with Palmer, he went back and to look at all the quarterbacks who came out of the draft and started on Day 1. Lewis was able to see threads connecting those players to the quarterback he saw at the Senior Bowl practice not miss a pass. Character. Mental toughness. Work ethic. And of course, talent.

“That was the cool moment,” Lewis said.

Lewis also was impressed that when he and the coaches worked him out at TCU, Dalton had nearly a dozen teammates show up to help.

“His college credentials were good but it was more than that that put him over with Jay,” Mike Brown said. “Jay, in his visits with him, found him to have the mindset, the attitude that he wanted in his quarterback. That’s what turned the trick for us.”

Being Andy Dalton: Bengals quarterback loosens up

The team and quarterback met a handful of times before the draft – and Dalton had a strong feeling Cincinnati was going to be where he wound up. But not if the top of the draft played out differently.

“When Cam (Newton) came out in 2011 he was such an impressive, in my mind, kid,” Lewis said. “We spent a lot of time with him. Had Carolina passed on him he likely would have been a Cincinnati Bengal if he got to us.”

It was an unlikely scenario, so the team had scouted all of the other top quarterbacks in that class as well – Jake Locker, Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Andy Dalton, Colin Kaepernick and Ryan Mallett. But of them all, Dalton was the one the team had its sights on.

“Literally there was an article – I hadn’t read it – when the (Bengals coaches) got to the facility at TCU there was an article that day written by USA Today that said the team that ended up with A.J. Green and Andy Dalton would be the big winners of the draft," Lewis recalled. "And Jay’s like, 'he’s accusing me of talking with some writer.' "

He laughed.

"But we were literally holding our breath because from the offensive point of view, those were our targets.”

As expected, Carolina took Newton at No. 1. Then when Locker went No. 8 to Tennessee, Gabbert No. 10 to Jacksonville and Ponder No. 12 to Minnesota, Gruden’s lungs shortened.

Dalton was his guy, and he thought Seattle at No. 25 and New England at No. 33 might take him. And earlier in the day Brown had thought better of trading up into the bottom of the first round to secure Dalton.

“We had convinced the owner to move up and get him and then we came in the morning of the draft and he decided he didn’t want to move,” Lewis laughed.

“That has an impact on the rest of your draft,” Brown said. “That’s at least something that’s in my mind whenever they (push to trade).”

Dalton was the guy – but they had to be patient. And Brown insisted that Kaepernick be part of the discussion at No. 35.

“I said to Jay explicitly – which one would you take between the two?” Brown said. “And it came our pick and the two were there. And he said he would take Andy. He was definite about it.”

“Every pick I’m holding my breath, hoping,” Gruden said. “I really felt strongly that he was the best fit for us and he’s proved us right, really.

The coaches had faith in Dalton, but it would take some time before his teammates did.

“He was an ultimate leader,” Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth said of Carson Palmer. “He was very good at being the leader of the football team and the captain. And a lot of guys in our locker room looked up to him for a million different things.

“For Andy to come in in that environment, where all these guys like literally, ‘CP’ is who they go to for everything, I think is just tough. Really tough.”

Now, suddenly, there was this quiet Texan from a relatively no-name college program being handed the keys to the castle.

“The transition time between Carson departing and departing the way he did and then Andy coming in and dumping all of that on his shoulders, he didn’t waver or shy away from it,” said former Bengals guard Bobbie Williams. “He took it as best as he could.”

Added former Bengals safety Chris Crocker: “All you can do is do your job very well because you don’t have any street credibility. You’re coming out of college, and this is a different game. I’ve seen great college players be terrible NFL pros. You have to win your teammates over by doing your job very well. That’s how you earn respect. And that’s what Andy did. He did his job very well and that’s how he won us over.”

Since Dalton took over in 2011, offensive coordinators Jay Gruden (Washington) and Hue Jackson (Cleveland) have moved on to get head coaching jobs, while quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese was promoted to offensive coordinator this offseason.

“I owe a lot of my – the reason I’m here is because of him and obviously Marvin and the rest of the group that we had that grew up together,” Gruden said. “I owe him. I owe him big time.”

Dalton went to the Pro Bowl and the Bengals won nine games in his rookie campaign, which began with less than three weeks of practice to start the season due to a owner-imposed lockout. Since then he has compiled 55-26-1 record (including 12 fourth quarter comebacks) in the games he has started and made the playoffs in all five seasons.

“When you go back at that draft class, who we were picking was going to be our starter as a rookie and we don’t have a spring to work with him,” Zampese said. “We can’t even talk to him about football for the summertime. What? How do you do that? Who was the most mentally tough guy in that whole, top group of quarterbacks? Our guy. No brainer. No brainer. Who can come in and handle the whole offense and speak the language and not lose his composure?

“There was one guy.”

The man behind the camera

Photojournalist Kareem Elgazzar accompanied me to Fort Worth, Texas and set up a mini-studio inside Paul Brown Stadium to create the images that illustrated the pages of the Sunday Enquirer print edition as well as the videos within the online version of "Being Andy Dalton."

It's not every day that the photographer is captured on camera, but I gave it a shot. Here, in Fort Worth, Elgazzar is giving the Bengals quarterback some lighting and focus pointers...

And here, Elgazzar is showing the QB how he wants the portrait to look.

Be sure to follow Kareem on Twitter here.

A day in the life of Andy Dalton

Training camp odds and ends