Brown makes his point, then one sweet deal
It's not often I have a chance to say this, but here goes: Mike Brown did the right thing. First, he made his point with Carson Palmer. Then he made a deal with Oakland.
And he won in both instances.
For months, the Bengals' owner insisted he would not trade the disgruntled Palmer, and for all the right reasons: It would set a precedent for future unhappy campers. The moment they didn't like a contract, their playing time, their jersey number, something, they could invoke the name of Carson Palmer and demand a first-class ticket out of Cincinnati.
Except they can't.
Brown never acted on Palmer's request, insisting he would do nothing to accommodate the quarterback. So the Bengals drafted Andy Dalton, opened training camp without Palmer, inserted Dalton in Palmer's place and went on as if nothing were different.
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But something was different. Palmer sat home, wanting to play again only it had to be somewhere other than Cincinnati. Brown held firm, refusing to budge … until, of course, the Oakland Raiders came along and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
"Mike Brown had to do this," said an NFL executive. “He just got two number-ones for someone who was never going to play for him again. Now he can rebuild the franchise with four number-ones over the next two years. This was a no-brainer. Mike Brown just hit a home run."
I spoke to someone close to the club Monday when he asked what the latest was with the Palmer situation. When I told him, he said the team should cut the deal because Brown had sat on principle long enough, proving he was a man of his word, and that Palmer’s trade value would never be as high as it is now.
He wasn't talking about any suitor. He was talking about the Oakland Raiders.
He knew they were desperate and would do what they could to find a quarterback. Only I was told that their interest in Palmer didn't start with the Jason Campbell injury. On the contrary, the Raiders inquired into Palmer's availability before last week, basically because Campbell had done little the past two games, and the trade deadline was getting near.
Brown backed them off then. But the Raiders made another run this week because they no longer had Campbell. They had Kyle Boller, and they knew what you do: Their future was bleak unless they found someone else.
So they pushed hard for Palmer, and give Mike Brown credit: He held the Raiders up until the offer was so good he couldn't decline it. That can happen when someone waves a couple of first-round draft picks in front of you.
"This wasn’t an average deal," said one AFC coach. "This was an above-average deal ... way, way above average."
Look, I know Brown was reluctant to accommodate Palmer, a guy he paid handsomely until Palmer decided he'd had enough of Cincinnati. But I also know Mike Brown is a pragmatist. He was offered a trade package that not only was hard to resist but that may never appear on his radar again.
So he took it.
He could've declined it out of principle, but the reality is that Cincinnati can turn the draft picks into starters and become a better team. Moreover, the reality is that in the absence of Palmer, the Bengals have found themselves a legitimate starter in Dalton.
In the end, Palmer did the organization a service by sitting out. He forced it to look for a successor, with the Bengals drafting a quarterback they probably would have ignored were Palmer in the picture, and he delivered it high draft picks it can turn into supporting actors for Dalton.
The bottom line is that Mike Brown just improved his team's future while turning his back on principle. He made it clear he will not suffer unhappy players lightly, forcing Palmer to sit down for nearly half a season before he acted. And he acted only when he was given an offer so lucrative only a fool would not consider it.
Fortunately, Mike Brown did more than consider Oakland's proposal. He took it. Good for him and good for the Cincinnati Bengals.
