The Real Reason Carson Palmer doesn’t want Joe Burrow to be a Bengal
Carson Palmer is warning Joe Burrow about the Cincinnati Bengals under the guise that he is a concerned party. However, his personal motives for wanting to keep Burrow out of stripes are shining through.
By now, nearly every Cincinnati Bengals fan is well aware that former quarterback Carson Palmer has been making his rounds on radio row and dragging his former employers along the way. He had this to say on CBS’S The D.A. Show,
"“I never felt like the organization was really trying to win a Super Bowl and really chasing a Super Bowl. That’s what today’s day and age is. You can’t just hope you draft well and not go after free agents and you end up in the Super Bowl. You got to go get it.”"
and then this on The Dan Patrick Show,
"“…everybody I was talking to along the way [said], ‘You can’t go to Cincinnati. You got to go somewhere else. You can’t play for the Bengals. You can’t play for the Bengals. I, at the time, was going, ‘This is awesome.’ I was arrogant. I was a young, arrogant kid. ‘I’m good enough. I’m going to change the whole thing around. I’m going to change the narrative.’ Obviously I wasn’t able to change that narrative and flip that.”"
Before diving into his comments, let’s look at the situation leading up to Palmer’s temper tantrum.
Palmer attended college at USC, where he, much like Burrow, had a stellar senior campaign that led to him winning the Heisman. The Bengal’s owned the number one overall pick that year and wisely selected the highly regarded signal-caller.
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The then 24-year-old started his career on the bench, sitting behind Jon Kitna. When he finally had done enough to win the starting job in his second year, he “led” the team to the exact same record as the season prior, 8-8. From there on out, the California native only saw two more winning seasons with the Bengals. For a quarterback who carried himself as one of the best in the game, he wasn’t living up to expectations.
The tipping point was reached during the 2010 season when Palmer oversaw a 4-12 record and threw a whopping 20 interceptions. At that time, it was evident he had quit on the team. He demanded a trade, threatening to retire before playing another game for the Queen City.
The Bengals finally obliged, dealing him to the Raiders in exchange for a first and second-round pick.
After the cancerous Palmer had packed his bags for sunny California? The Bengals went 9-7 and saw 5 straight playoff appearances while he floundered in Oakland, leading his new team to-you guessed it-back to back failed seasons.
He finally found himself on an Arizona Cardinals squad that had three winning seasons in a row but saw just a single playoff victory during his stint with the team. After the lone win, he put together a game in the NFC championship where he threw 4 interceptions and watched as his team lost 49-15.
Palmer mercifully called it quits after the 2016 season. For all the hype that surrounded his name, it yielded a single postseason victory and a whole lot of expectations never met.
Circling back to his comments from earlier, Palmer stated he thought he was good enough to turn things around in Cincinnati. When he came short, he blamed everybody but himself. Now, he sees Burrow with the same opportunity he had and no indication that an excuse will ever cross his lips.
The under-achieving signal-caller sat alongside the rest of us on the couch this season as fans witnessed Burrow ascend from an after-thought to the undisputed number one quarterback in this class. Palmer sees the potential he once had in Ohio’s own Burrow.
So why the sudden outburst once it started to become evident Burrow will be in Cincinnati next season? If it was true concern for the Manning award winner, he could have sent him a message in private.
The social stunt was to desperately get the media to put his name back in the class of quarterbacks at Burrow’s caliber.
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All in all, perhaps Palmer doesn’t want the LSU prospect in the orange and black because he’s filled with regret for quitting on the city. Maybe he’s overcome with embarrassment that the franchise was much better off once he left. Whatever the case may be, it’s evident that Palmer is deathly afraid that Joe Burrow has what it takes to reach the level of success he was supposed to have and take the throne in Cincinnati.