Carson Palmers career has been first-class. He played in destitute Cincinnati for 7 seasons. Putting up some attractive numbers while there, finishing his career there with 22,694 yards, 3rd in team history. 154 TD passes, also 3rd in Bengals history.

But one thing Carson didn’t do was lead his team to the Super Bowl. With a 46-51 record as a starter there, winning only 47% of the games he QB’ed in, he wouldn’t be classified precisely as a winning QB.

He, like many, many other players have wanted, wanted out of Cincinnati. So badly, in fact, that he essentially said he would rather retire than to play there again. And he actually stood by his words, hi-five for Carson! No crawling back, no crying and complaining just upped and told them, “trade me or I’m done.” Mike Brown wouldn’t trade him and that was it.

For then.

The Oakland Raiders have been having a very reliable season so far. Led by 4 yr RB, Darren McFadden and his lengthy stride to a monstrous 5.5/carry and 4 rushing TDs so far. Jason Campbell was playing respectable, giving them 195 yards/game in the air with 6 TD passes. His 7.1 yards per attempt were high as to where he usually is in the league. Campbell, I always felt was a good QB, never great, he has faced so many different adjustments in his challenging 6 year career.

So Campbell goes down, breaks his collarbone, and suddenly Carson Palmer is wearing the silver and black. It was clearly the best situation that presented itself for everyone involved. I guess Mike Brown wasn’t so stupid, he got great picks for a 31 year old QB, a 1st rounder in 2012 and a conditional 2nd rounder for 2013. Of course, with the Bengals playing good ball, putting up 23/game, and the splendid development of Andy Dalton as the new man in Cincinnati, the move made lots of sense and worked out excellently for Bengals fans. They have an optimistic season, 2 great picks upcoming; they could definitely be headed in the right direction in the very near future.

What Carson Palmer now brings to the Raiders is a veteran leader, an accurate arm, 63% for his career, and a guy with potential of throwing 25 TD passes in a season, where as Campbell has never thrown more than 20. Palmer is in a similar situation with Oakland as some other older vet QBs that join a team on the brink of breaking out. Their offense has been impressive so far, scoring 27/gm. We have spoken about McFadden; their WR situation is young, but with Palmer slinging it, I don’t see any rational reason these guys can’t become better players.

Palmer fell into a pleasant situation, a winning team, in a diluted division, where they can compete for the division title. With 5 games against shabby teams, they very well could win 11 games this year, which should be good for playoffs. They won 8 games last year, and they have improved, so I say although the Raiders gave up a lot, and they certainly did, it’s go big or don’t go at all in Oakland. A lot depends on how fast Palmer can get clicking on all cylinders after such a long layoff.

Written by Tony Karpinski for VegasTopDogs.com