We know that Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer no longer wants to play for the team. We don’t know whether the Bengals will give him what he wants.
Owner Mike Brown on Monday indicated that he still intends to keep Palmer around. At the AFC coaches’ breakfast on Tuesday morning in New Orleans, coach Marvin Lewis continued to send strong signals that he’s moving on -- and that Palmer is moving out.
Asked about whether the Bengals, who hold the fourth overall pick, have a greater need at receiver or quarterback, Lewis said (per Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that the greater need is at quarterback.
If this were happening with any team other than the Bengals, we’d suspect that it was an intentional good cop, bad cop routine aimed at keeping teams guessing about the organization’s true objectives.
When it comes to the Bengals, any strategic benefit is merely coincidental to the inherent dysfunction.
The reality is that, even if the Bengals plan to try to trade Palmer, the Bengals need to keep those drafting behind the Bengals in rounds one and two guessing, so that they won’t jump in front of them in order to draft the player that the Bengals truly covet with either the fourth overall pick or the 35th.
