The Cincinnati Bengals have a quarterback languishing on the bench. The Oakland Raiders have a quarterback sidelined to the bench. Sounds like a trade could be useful for both sides, couldn't it?
With Andy Dalton now fully secure in the starting spot for the Bengals, Carson Palmer seems fully ready to either retire or move on. The Raiders make perfect sense for him with Palmer's familiarity with current Oakland head coach Hue Jackson. Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports reports that Oakland has been going hard for the veteran quarterback.
According to a source familiar with the team’s thinking, the Raiders were "trying hard" to make a deal for Palmer, although the source highly doubted that Cincinnati owner Mike Brown would deal Palmer.
Unfortunately, just as Cole stated, it's not likely Oakland has the pieces to deal for the Cincinnati quarterback.
In this situation, Davis likely would pull out some serious stops. But the Raiders are in a bit of a quandary right now because they don’t have second-, third- or fourth-round picks in 2012 because of a series of moves (they used the third-rounder for Pryor in the supplemental draft, for instance).
In this situation, the Raiders would do well to offer Cincinnati a third-round pick in 2013 that could increase in value to a second- or even first-round pick if Palmer performed well either this year or in 2012.
That's a lot to give up for a quarterback that hasn't played well in awhile, and would pretty much deprive the Raiders of any potential replenishing in upcoming drafts. The NFL trade deadline is coming soon (Tuesday actually), so if the Raiders want to make a move and land Palmer, they're going to have make an aggressive offer quickly.
For more on Bengals football, head to Cincy Jungle. For more on Raiders football, head to Silver and Black Pride.