Andy Dalton Injury: Is Bruce Gradkowski a Reliable Fantasy Football Handcuff?

Before the season, there were many—both fantasy football experts as well as new media—who thought that the Cincinnati Bengals would benefit long term if rookie Andy Dalton was shown the bench in favor of journeyman veteran Bruce Gradkowski.

This weekend, when Dalton went down with an injury to his right wrist, we saw what that would have looked like.

Let's be honest—it wasn't pretty.

In past efforts, Gradkowski has looked much better than he did against a Cleveland defense not ranked amongst the game's best. Gradkowski looked slow and unsure at times and just couldn't connect with his receivers often enough.

It could be a matter of not working with the first team offense enough. Or it could be an offensive line which allowed four sacks and seven tackles for a loss.

I'll be honest, I'm no great believer in Dalton's pro prospects. I think he's a smart kid who can throw the ball OK, but he lacks the arm strength to zip a ball between two NFL caliber defensive backs. That's before I even factor in wind in Cincy in November.

Despite all that, I think that as shaky as Dalton is, he's a better bet than Gradkowski.

Dalton is barely worth rostering in a redraft league. After today, I'd say Gradkowski is safely below that.

The good news for the Cincinnati Bengals is, Andy Dalton's injury to his right wrist does not seem serious nor does it appear that he will miss any more game time.

The bad news is, they lack a credible threat at the back-up quarterback position.

If you can barely count on Andy Dalton as a bye week fill-in, you can't count on Bruce Gradkowski at all.

AJ Green, Jermaine Gresham, Jerome Simpson and Andre Caldwell are intriguing. Don't let them fool you into thinking rostering Gradkowski—even as a flier—is worth the space.

Andrew Garda is a staff writer at Footballguys.com – check out all their subscriber content – money back guarantee until Sept 30^th!