Bengals Rob Raiders

            I’m not sure if I’ll ever have the opportunity to praise a move by the Cincinnati Bengals again, so let’s take advantage of it and talk up their fleecing of the Oakland Raiders. Bengals owner Mike Brown stubbornly refused to trade former number one overall pick Carson Palmer for the past eight months. Conventional wisdom would say that with each day that went by, Palmer’s value would drop. Factor in Palmer’s mediocre play over the past two seasons (he was a liability during Cincinnati’s surprising division winning season in 2009) and the solid play of second round pick Andy Dalton, I had a hard time believing that Cincinnati would get anything more than a third round pick for him. Amazingly, Mike Brown’s incompetence paid off in the end.

            Oakland sent a 2012 first round pick, and a conditional 2013 second rounder (it would bump up to a first round pick if the Raiders make one of the next two AFC Championship games) for the rights to Palmer. The Raiders have been impressive early, but Jason Campbell’s broken collarbone threatened to put a huge damper on Oakland’s playoff chances. When Kyle Boller is the only viable quarterback on the roster, it certainly is understandable that the Raiders would look elsewhere. However, in this case the price was too high. Palmer has been an elite quarterback in the NFL, but sending two high draft picks for a guy who can only help you for nine games is a risky proposition. To put it in perspective, Brandon Lloyd, who was the leading receiver in the league last season, was just shipped from Denver to St. Louis for a sixth round pick. Familiarity with Raiders Head Coach Hue Jackson (who worked with Palmer in the past at USC and Cincinnati) will help speed up the learning curve, but it will take weeks for Carson to have a full grasp of the playbook. It’s very likely that Palmer will not be able to play at a high level until 2012. To make matters worse for Oakland, they now only have two picks left in next year’s draft.
            If I’m Cincinnati and got a phone call with this sort of offer, I would’ve accepted this deal in approximately 0.000328 seconds. Getting two draft picks that will land somewhere in the top 60 of the next two drafts is an incredible haul for a guy that clearly wasn’t involved in your future plans. Added picks will give Cincinnati the luxury of using one on a stud runningback, or adding depth on the offensive line. I wrote before the season that things were looking brighter for the Bengals. Their outlook improves after making this trade.