In what is perhaps one of the worst bluffs in recent memory, Carson Palmer recently requested to be “traded” out of Cincinnati this off-season. Sources close to Palmer insist that if the Bengals QB is not traded, he is willing to “retire.” I have no doubt that Palmer would like to be out from under the dark cloud that is the Cincinnati Bengals, that he is fed up with the losing, the missteps of his teammates and dealing with a pair of wide receivers that are more about branding themselves than winning football games. But let’s face facts, Palmer is not going to walk away from the $50 million that he is owed over the next four years.
Palmer is trying to force the Bengals hand, but he is leaving the team between a rock and a hard place. Palmer has little trade value because of his large contract and questions about whether or not he is a top tier QB. The Bengals also have stated that Palmer is in their plans as the QB of the present and future. Unless another team is willing to make a foolish trade, there is no way Palmer gets moved.
Palmer is either trying to get the Bengals attention in the hopes that management will make moves to make Palmer want to stay in Cincy, such as getting rid of Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens. It was evident that the Bengals offense had more life and cohesiveness over the last two weeks of the 2010 season without Ochocinco and Owens. Palmer has to know that his best chance to win in Cincy is to get rid of the personalities that do not mesh well with his and be given the chance to truly be the lone voice on that offense.
Or, Palmer is trying to circumvent the NFL’s free agency rules a la Brett Farve. If you remember (and I know you do), the ageless wonder asked the Jets for his release citing his desire to retire. Then turned around and signed with the Vikings while the commish sat on his hands. Perhaps Palmer feels he could work some of the same magic. It would be interesting to see if Roger Goodell would allow his leagues rules to be made a mockery of again.The other and slightly less likely option for Palmer is to somehow work a trade to the Ravens in the hopes of getting in on the upcoming open competition at QB. Since it is clear Joe Flacco’s best days are behind him why not add Palmer to the mix and let him try and win the job over Flacco or Marc Bulger.
Palmer could end up playing int he NFC West and as a Ravens fan I would not mind seeing him out of the AFC North. Palmer does always seem to save his best for the Ravens. Will Palmer be with a new team in 2011, or will he be spending training camp and the early season trying to win back the Bengals fans?
“Since it is clear Joe Flacco’s best days are behind him”…is this a joke? I hope this is your attempt to poke fun at Mike Preston?
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Haha… as soon as I saw the headline yesterday, I was trying to predict MGW's and 2488's reaction that Palmer was on the market. Maybe, Palmer is the Mighty Man we need to lead this team….. 😉
"Since it is clear Joe Flacco's best days are behind him"… Is this a joke? I hope this is your attempt to poke fun at Mike Preston?
the comment is very tongue-in-cheek….. for some reason our commenters think Flacco will aspire to mediocrity.
Flacco is already mediocre….
My only issue with Flacco is his supposed "canon arm". While I've seen tons of zip on intermediate passes, he is consistently short on deep passes.
In talking with you guys, our generation gap becomes more and evident. Both you and Pilson obviously grew up in the era where everyone got a trophy, everyone is great, any criticism is an indictment on that person's character. When I grew up kids had to win something to get a trophy and if someone was critical of something you did, it didn't mean they didn't like you.
Get over it, will you? Tissue? Crybabies… (think GEICO commercial)
He's short because he lacks the confidence IMO.
And it's a major issue.
And I have alot of trophies due to winning. Not just participating!
Mark – comments were in response to the salvos that Sadler and JP launched over my bow, not you.
A lot of the younger generation has never been criticized and doesn't know how to handle criticism. If someone criticizes them (or something they like) it's viewed as personal or an attack…NO, it's just criticism. So, if I am critical of a certain aspect of Flacco's game (his inconsistency with the deep pass), all of the sudden I am trying to run him out of town. If I then question his seeming lack of poise at times, well then I done right hate the guy!
Who can blame Palmer for wanting to get out of that circus?
As to Flacco.
Why is it that there are two camps. Either you are completely sold and think he walks on water or you think he stinks?
The guy has talent but absolutely has to get better. Stop looking at QB ratings and watch the games.
So glad your back, Mark.
Mark, I agree 100% about Flacco. He has improved every year, but still has room and need to get better. I have not seen many, if any, on here that feel Flacco is in the class of Bray, Manning, Ben, Rodgers or Brees. But when people want to lump all the problems of the Ravens offense on the shoulders of the QB it is going to bring many to his defense. At times that defense will sound overly positive in the face of the negativity.
He put up his best numbers behind a line that gave up 40 sacks, some of that is on Joe, and a running game that averaged 3.8 yards per carry. Sure the offense had more weapons, but there is still not much speed or ability to get downfield. When defenses don't have to worry about stuff over their head, the windows underneath get tighter and tighter.
Oh, I know there are more issues than Flacco.
The one thing I took from watching the Steelers punch their ticket to the Bowl once again was this.
They lost their starting RT (Colon) before training camp started. They lost their starting LT (Starks) in the first game vs the Ravens which was week 4. They lost their pro bowl center (Pouncey) on the first series last night. And yet they ran the ball ALL OVER a good Jets D in the first half.
Now, compare that with the Ravens. They lost ONE guy in Gaither. And everyone who's followed Gaither even from a distance knows that he's a major headcase who is VERY unreliable. So what happened with our Oline? It went into shambles. Why? Because this team literally didn't have a serviceable backup to EITHER tackle. Both Moll and Cousins couldn't handle being a right tackle.
So that began the domino effect. Oher to LT, Yanda to RT, and an undersized Chester to the starting RG. One guy going down caused a switch at 3 positions on the OL because there was absolutely no depth.
So who gets fired? Matsko.
Meanwhile, the Steelers one tackle for the entire year and the other for 3/4 of the year yet they manage to plug guys in and win the AFC.
Hell, they were 40 seconds from going 4-0 without Ben!
Back to Flacco. I gotta say it again. Enough with the numbers. Look at Ben R's numbers last night. If you missed the game and just looked at the box score you'd think they won in spite of him.
But of course, that's far from the case.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I h e to ask, who is to blame if Matsko wasn't the problem. Harbs? Ozzie?Sent from my iPhone
You can't have great starters and great depth at every position in the NFL today. The Steelers' OL coach (Kugler) had done a LOT with little, IMO. The Ravens gambled that their 5 starters with little depth would work well, but you take a lot of risk if one or two guys goes down in that case.
The Steelers have taken the opposite approach, depth over starter talent at OL. Most of the guys they had this year are the same group from last year, except Flozell Adams for Colon (downgrade), Pouncey for Hartwig (a major swap), and Jonathan Scott for Max Starks (downgrade). The difference is that they somehow found an incredible OL coach that has made the backup-grade starters, backups, and backups to backups all able to play at a decent level…
I think if the Ravens can focus on finding a very good OL coach and just add some serviceable depth via draft and/or cheap free agency, those subtle changes could go a long way toward an improved OL.
Matsko thought the offense in general was a joke. He was fired but he certainly wasn't sad to leave. Look how fast he landed a job in Carolina. He's a very well respected OL coach.
The lack of depth on the OL is on the personnel people. Cousins was a terrible pick. They acquired Moll who has no business being on the field.
smart post. I have always loved cars. cheers