It may have been months overdue, but the Cincinnati Bengals finally parted ways with former No. 1 pick Carson Palmer after sending him to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a first-round pick in 2012 and the possibility of another one in 2013. Palmer threatened to retire last January if the organization failed to meet his demands for a trade and now that he’s officially gone from Cincinnati–it appears his head coach is taking shots at him once again.
Les Carpenter of Yahoo! Sports discussed on Thursday how Andy Dalton has helped Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and company move on from Palmer after the former TCU standout has played a big role in the team’s surprise 4-2 start. However, it was Lewis’ comments towards Palmer about last season–mainly how he believes his quarterback “quit” in the middle of the season.
From Carpenter’s article:
“At what point did Carson quit?” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis asks, repeating a similar question. “At some point last year he decided he didn’t want to be here. This didn’t happen at the end of the season. There was a point earlier on when he said, ‘This isn’t the place for me.’ ”
There were high expectations for the Bengals in 2010 after winning the AFC North the previous year, but their season was nothing but frustrating as they finished with one of the worst records in football at 4-12.
Palmer did admit his decision to never set foot in Paul Brown Stadium again was selfish, but he strongly believes it was the right one after eight seasons. Mike Brown has been cricicized numerous times for his inability to run the organization and became the quickest owner to reach 200 losses–so it should be no surprise Palmer was feeling the frustration.
Still, there’s no reason for Lewis to be taking a shot at his former quarterback. In the end, the move needed to be done and Cincinnati received two high draft picks in the process–so there’s no reason for Lewis or the team to still be upset about everything.
Dan Parzych is the Lead NFL Content Editor for www.RantSports.com/NFL, where he writes and edits NFL content for www.RantSports.com.
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