The Oakland Raiders made a bold move to replace injuredquarterback Jason Campbell on Tuesday, trading two high draft picks to theCincinnati Bengals for Carson Palmer.
Coach Hue Jackson paid a high price to acquire a quarterbackhe knows well but who has struggled in recent years and refused to report theBengals this season despite being under contract through 2014.
The Bengals had been adamant about not trading Palmer, whowanted to be dealt from a team that has had only two winning records in thelast 20 years.
Owner Mike Brown repeatedly insisted he wouldn't considerPalmer's request for a trade because he didn't want to reward him for holdingout. He changed his mind after the Raiders offered a 2012 first-round pick anda second-rounder in 2013 for the 31-year-old quarterback.
The Raiders (4-2) became desperate for a quarterback afterCampbell broke his collarbone during a win over the Browns on Sunday. Campbellhad surgery Monday and was expected to miss at least six weeks, leaving theRaiders with only Kyle Boller and Terrelle Pryor on the roster.
Jackson's mantra all season has been "the time isnow," and he backed that up by dealing for Palmer, who is coming off a20-interception season last year with the Bengals.
Brown said the play of rookie quarterback Andy Dalton madeit easier to trade Palmer.
"We also find ourselves rather suddenly in position ofbeing able to receive real value for Carson that can measurably improve ourteam, which is performing well and is showing real promise for this year andyears to come," he said in a statement. "When this opportunity arose,we felt we could not let it pass and needed to take a step forward with thefootball team if we could."
Palmer, who had been working out in Southern California,already reported to the Raiders' facility and will immediately start learningthe offense. Oakland hosts Kansas City on Sunday and then has a bye week.
While Palmer has not played or practiced since last season,he has a history with Jackson, who was his offensive coordinator for two yearsat USC and the wide receivers coach for three seasons in Cincinnati.
Jackson was with the Bengals when Palmer had his best seasonin 2005 when he threw for 3,836 yards with 32 touchdown passes and a 101.1rating while leading the team to an AFC North title. Palmer tore up his leftknee during a playoff loss to Pittsburgh that season.
He came back and had two solid seasons before partiallytearing a ligament and tendon in his passing elbow during the 2008 season. Hehas not been an elite quarterback since, despite getting back to the playoffsin 2009.
Over the past two years, Palmer completed 61.2 percent ofhis passes for 7,064 yards, 47 touchdowns, 33 interceptions and a passer ratingof 82.9 while posting a 14-18 record. Those numbers are comparable to whatCampbell has done since the start of the 2009 season.
But the Raiders were not willing to trust their playoffchances with Boller, who had not started a game since 2009 and had lost hisprevious 10 starts since October 2007, or Pryor, a project who will need timebefore he can be an NFL quarterback.
"It'll be a learning curve for him because he hasn'tplayed football in a while but I'm excited to have a leader on that side of theball of his caliber," Raiders defensive tackle Richard Seymour told SiriusXMNFL Radio. "Anytime you have an opportunity to acquire someone of Carson'spedigree I don't think it's something that you can pass up on."
This is the second trade the Raiders have made since thedeath of longtime owner Al Davis, who also served as general manager andoversaw the entire football operation. Jackson dealt last week for former No. 4overall pick in 2009, linebacker Aaron Curry from Seattle.
The trade leaves the Raiders with picks only in the fifthand sixth round in next year's draft. They traded their second-rounder duringApril's draft to New England for the picks to draft offensive lineman JoeBarksdale and running back Taiwan Jones. They used their third-rounder to takePryor in the supplemental draft in August. They traded their fourth-rounder in2010 to get Campbell and the seventh-rounder for Curry.
Oakland is expecting to get compensatory picks after losingNnamdi Asomugha, Zach Miller, Robert Gallery, Thomas Howard and BruceGradkowski in free agency.
The Bengals (4-2) have started well with Dalton takingPalmer's place. The message board by the entrance to the Bengals' locker roomTuesday had an anonymous scrawled message: "Let My People Goooooo!"Otherwise, there wasn't much reaction from a team that had moved on from Palmera long time ago.
"I don't think even one player in this locker room'seven thought about that," left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "Wehaven't worried about it. We've gone forward with the guys we have and tried toplay as good as we can and that's all we can do."
The Bengals severed ties with Palmer when the season startedand he didn't show up, giving his locker to Dalton, a second-round draft pick.
As recently as Monday afternoon, coach Marvin Lewisreiterated there was no change in the team's position regarding Palmer. Thencame the offer from the Raiders.