SIGnificant Cards - 2011 Andy Dalton Prestige Draft Picks Rights Rookie

With all of the quarterbacks selected in the 2011 draft by teams that sorely needed them, it was bound to be an exciting season watching them all explode or implode. Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, Christian Ponder and Andy Dalton were all fantastic NCAA QBs. Who would succeed at the NFL was up to them and they all have performed well when called upon. Newton has put up outstanding numbers, but they have not translated into victories. Gabbert has struggled and so has Ponder. Dalton performed well in the season opener when the Bengals defeated the Browns. They are looking for the sweep of the Browns today. After the opener, the Bengals dropped their next two and then Dalton led them to a 5-game winning streak. It had fans saying, "Carson who"?

The Bengals are improving at a steady pace. They dropped games to superior opponents, but they are holding their own. Don't be surprised if they find a way to continue winning and earn a wild card in the very even-keeled AFC. The are currently on a 2-game skid, let's see if they can run off another 5-game win streak and make Dalton's rookie campaign even more of a success story. It won't be easy as they face Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston among others in their last six. They hung tight with their fellow AFC North franchises and the Texans are going to struggle without the services of starting QB Matt Schaub.

Football. Ain't it great?

This Dalton rookie card comes from the early Panini America release Prestige. It's usually the first NFL product on the market and is loaded with rookies. A box usually provides a couple of autographed rookie cards in addition to the regular base-card variety. This is card #207 from the set and is sequentially numbered to 499. It is the Draft Picks Rights variation and sports a really nice looking sig on a sticker. I usually don't like closeup images on cards, but take a look at Dalton's face, he is determined and you can see that he's taking all of the experience from his TCU days into the NFL. The fifth QB selected and a second rounder, the Bengals couldn't pass him up and got a franchise player; exactly what they were looking for.