Week 2 Fantasy Football Start Em, Sit Em: Why You Must Bench Andy Dalton

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton was limited in practice today, only participating for about a half-an-hour and working handoffs and pitches to running backs with his left hand.

Dalton injured his right (throwing) wrist in the Bengals' season opening win against the Cleveland Browns and was replaced by backup Bruce Gradkowski for the remainder of the game.

While the rookie is not entirely ruled out for Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos, it is looking doubtful that he will be healthy enough in time to start.

For fantasy GMs with Dalton on their rosters (you do exist, yes?), this means it's time to look for another option at quarterback this week.

Dalton is owned in just four percent of Yahoo! fantasy leagues and for good reason. He's a rookie quarterback charged with leading the struggling Bengals, and he failed to make an impression in the preseason.

He has starting value only in those unorthodox leagues, which start two quarterbacks, or in extremely deep leagues where quarterbacks went fast and early.

Now that Dalton is having trouble gripping the ball, you have another compelling reason to not start the quarterback for your fantasy team.

My recommendation is to cut Dalton entirely if he is on your team, especially if you have compelling free agent quarterbacks still available to you.

If that is not an option for you, however, and you must retain him, his only value this week appears to be on the bench.