I guess our best hope with Dalton is that he'll turn into another Plunkett, or Foles, a quarterback that doesn't show that he's SB-quality, but manages to lead a team to that level.
Some of the arguments for, and against, Dalton here are too simplistic, like:
"He had AJ Green and couldn't win a playoff game".
Well defenses can pretty much shut down any offensive player if that's the only real offensive threat the team has. Double Green and put a safety over the top as well, and he's not going to be able to do much. Now I didn't study those playoff games, don't know if that happened, just noting having a great player doesn't guarantee playoff success.
"He had a pretty good defense several years"
First of all the defenses he did have weren't like top-5, it takes a defense that good to really shut down the other team's offense, a 11th or such rated one can be neutralized for one game, Landry did it many times, as well as others. He still needed good coaching, etc., maybe he didn't have that? Again, don't know, just a thought.
"He's more accurate than Dak"
In some situations he has been, but is that enough to bring this team past Dak's success level? Again, coaching and other players around him play a part.
My point is this is a new situation for Dalton, and the Cowboys, we've had Matt Cassel, Brandon Weeden and Kellen Moore before, guys with limited success or limited experience. There's so many dynamics involved that anybody that says he will, or won't be, successful is just giving their opinion, which is of course fine. Those who state it WILL be this way or that are probably sincere in their opinion, but some just want to be able to say "See, I was right, I'm smarter than you" IF it works out like they said.
And if it doesn't, there's not a peep out of them, or it's "I didn't say that, what I said was...." Or they are never heard from again. Somebody on the old Cowboys website comment page insisted a certain player was All World, would be the best whatever position player, then when he got cut and was never heard from again, crickets from the poster.
I'm not always right, but not always wrong, either, just like all the rest of us.
We'll see what happens with Dalton shortly...