I hear what you're saying but Dalton was never a Franchise QB. Once upon a time he was one of the top 20 QBs, but there's only around 8 franchise QBs in the league at any given time. I've never thought of Dalton as someone who was going to win games for the Bengals.
That being said. If you can't get Carr or Fields, I think Dalton is better than any other option currently in the NFL.