The Bengals will be in Arizona on Sunday night for a game against the Cardinals, which means that they’ll get a chance to play against quarterback Carson Palmer for the second time since trading him to the Raiders in 2011.
That trade came after much acrimony between Palmer and the team, including Bengals owner Mike Brown’s initial refusal to accept Palmer’s request to be moved and Palmer’s brief retirement. In an interview with Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com, Brown said he and Palmer “argued about what the future should be for him and us” before Palmer said he would retire rather than return to the Bengals.
Brown said he doubted Palmer was serious about retiring and that the whole thing left him with an “odd feeling” about a player the Bengals picked first overall in 2003, but that he still likes Palmer and feels sorry about the way things came to an end.
“I like Carson Palmer personally,” Brown said. “I did when he was here. I regret it broke apart the way it did. I don’t want him to beat us any more than he wants us to beat him. I’m sure that will be in the back of his mind. But other than that, I wish him well. He’s a special passer, very accurate. I look at him play and I see the player that we had when he was here. When he’s on and playing the way he can play, he is a big-time winning quarterback.”
Things ended in an ugly fashion, but both the Bengals and Palmer have been able to land on their feet. It took Palmer getting from Oakland to Arizona for him to rediscover his game, but he’s having perhaps his finest season for the 7-2 Cardinals.
The Bengals wound up taking cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick and running back Giovani Bernard with the picks acquired for Palmer and they handed the quarterback job to Andy Dalton after selecting him in the second round of the 2011 draft. All of that has worked out well enough for the Bengals to make four straight playoff appearances, open this season with eight straight wins and set the stage for a big game against their former quarterback this weekend.