| 05 September 2010
Jordan Palmer has no business in the NFL and he's obviously only on the team to basically serve as a caddy for his older brother - starting quarterback Carson Palmer.
Listen, it's time to stop coddling the elder Palmer. He's over 30 years old, is one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the game (even though his play last year was not up to par) and it's now-or-never for him. There are no excuses with the weapons he has around him. Once considered one of the best QBs in the NFL, you can't find anyone who would rank Palmer in the top 10 any longer. (ESPN's Bill Simmons ranks him 15th out of the 32 starters -- even behind a very mediocre player [at best] in David Garrard who is No. 14.) Hopefully Palmer can change that this season and prove the last few years were about injuries and not having a good enough supporting cast.
However, if he goes down with an injury, the Bengals don't really have a viable backup. J.T. O'Sullivan is the No. 2 QB and is in the final year of his contract. There is a good chance the Bengals will draft a QB in 2011 and will groom him to be Palmer's backup.
But for this season, they should gobble up Smith who never really got a fair shot with the Ravens. The 2006 Heisman Trophy winner was slated to be their starter in 2008, but was hospitalized for two weeks with a rare virus during the preseason and the team ended up starting rookie first-round pick Joe Flacco instead.
Flacco has proven to be a solid player and Smith was never going to be the starter there. But he looked like a pretty damn good No. 2. However, the Ravens went out and signed veteran Marc Bulger this offseason - and even though Smith out-played him during the preseason - Bulger had the backup job locked up as soon as he signed a one-year deal for $3.7 million.
Then the Ravens decided to only keep two quarterbacks and Smith was the odd man out. I'm telling you, he's clearly better than O'Sullivan and Palmer and they should give the latter his walking papers.
And if the Bengals aren't sold on Smith for whatever reason (6-foot quarterbacks can never be successful in the NFL - right Drew Brees?) they should look into signing Matt Leinart who was just pink-slipped by the Cardinals. (Oh wait, would that basically be another caddy for Carson Palmer since they were teammates at USC? Maybe so, but he would be a better "caddy" than Jordan Palmer who racked up interceptions in college even playing against terrible competition at UTEP. Again, no way Jordan Palmer is in the NFL right now if he's not Carson Palmer's little brother. Typical Bengals' front office BS.)
* The other interesting player out on the market right now is former Bengal WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who was cut by first-year Seahawks cheating mastermind, er, head coach Pete Carroll. Yes, Housh likes to talk and would be yet another "diva" on a team that is collecting them by the bunches. But my attitude is just "Put it on my tab" at this point. What's one more diva? Especially when he's probably willing to sign for the veteran minimum knowing the Seahawks would have to make up the difference in terms of the remaining guaranteed money he's due this season (over $6 million). So, if the Bengals could sign Housh for roughly $900K, sign me up for that and give Jerome Simpson his walking papers. Chad Ochocinco is already pushing for the team to sign Who'syourmomma - and we all know it worked in the case of Terrell Owens.
* Also, I think the Bengals made the right decision at kicker going with Mike Nugent who was a second-round pick by the Jets in 2005. If Nuge can remain healthy - and he apparently already has a strained groin (but will kick in the opener and says it's very minor) - he's the type of guy that could have a big year in terms of field goals and kickoffs.
Man it's going to be nice not seeing Shank, er, Shayne Graham kicking off any longer. You would think an NFL kicker could get the ball inside the 5 on occasion - not Mr. Graham. Who, by the way, was cut by the Ravens in favor of Billy Cundiff yesterday. Hello UFL!
* Alright, we have some fun poking fun at Mike Brown and the way he does business (actually, it's not fun at all to have such a dense man as the owner) but I have to give the Bengals' front office credit for the trade for safety Reggie Nelson. He was a bust for the Jaguars (No. 21 overall pick in the 2007 draft, three picks after the Bengals took cornerback Leon Hall) but could be a nice pickup for the Bengals as the backup free safety to Chris Crocker.
The Bengals clearly needed safety help, clearly had a glut of solid corners and were able to flip former waiver-wire pickup David Jones (and a conditional 2011 draft pick which I bet will end up being a sixth-rounder or something) for Nelson. Nice work there. I really liked the Gibril Wilson signing during the offseason as a backup safety, but he was the one major injury to come out of the preseason (out for the year). So, finding a safety was key for the Bengals and they were able to find one with a lot of upside and it didn't cost them much.
With the surprising emergence of Pacman Jones as the No. 3 corner, and the knowledge that Morgan Trent is a solid No. 4 option, the Bengals were probably going to have to cut one of their corners if they couldn't trade one of them. They also have rookie third-round pick Brandon Ghee, but he probably won't help out all that much this year unless there are injuries to one of the guys ahead of him.
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