Cincinnati Bengals: Best quarterbacks in team history, No. 4

Continuing to look at the best quarterbacks in franchise history for the Cincinnati Bengals, we now move on to the fourth-best signal-caller the team has seen.

In the dead part of the NFL calendar, every team is waiting to put their plan for the 2018 season fully into action. For the Cincinnati Bengals, that means trying to get back to the postseason following a disappointing 2017 campaign. But again, there is quite a bit of time between now and training camp.

While in this interim period though, it’s a great time to look back the history of the franchise, specifically the players who have helped to define the team over the years.

We’ll be going through every position group at some point during this exercise, beginning with the quarterbacks. We already looked at the fifth-best quarterback in Cincinnati’s franchise history (as well as some of the interesting quarterbacks not included in the top five), so now we continue with No. 4.

4. Carson Palmer

No matter the era, quarterback has always tended to be the single-most important position on the field. Thus, it is no wonder why we have seen them become the first player selected in the draft more often than any other position in the history of the NFL (33 quarterbacks have gone No. 1 overall, including 12 in the last 18 drafts).

Joining that list in 2003 was Palmer, and for good reason. He was coming off a successful college career at USC, which he finished off with a blowout Orange Bowl win over Iowa and a Heisman Trophy. Though incumbent quarterback Jon Kitna would prove to have something good in the tank in the coming years, adding a prospect like Palmer was a no-brainer decision for new head coach Marvin Lewis and the franchise as a whole.

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While Palmer came in as the best quarterback prospect since Peyton Manning, having Kitna in tow turned out to be an important factor for his career. Because Kitna managed to put in the best season of his career in 2003, it allowed Palmer to come along slowly and work on honing his abilities. With that extra year of preparation, Palmer was able to produce a Pro Bowl-caliber season in only his second year as a starter. In 2005, he put up league-leading numbers in completion percentage (67.8), touchdowns (32), and touchdown percentage (6.3) while leading Cincinnati to an 11-5 record and Cincinnati’s first division title since 1990.

That year, while it fueled excitement for the future, turned out to be a harbinger for something else entirely. That playoff game was hopefully the opening salvo in a long string of championship-contending seasons; with a franchise quarterback proving himself to be on par with anyone at his position, that future was all but assured. Unfortunately, seconds into that initial playoff contest, Kimo von Oelhoffen came low around the edge and ended up taking out Palmer’s knee — destroying Cincinnati’s chances that season.

While he would recover from that particular injury, it would be that and other serious issues which would be the lasting memory of Palmer’s time in Cincinnati. He was quickly back on the field in 2006 after that knee injury, but his play never really reached that 2005 peak again with Cincinnati (among the issues: a dropping completion percentage, and a league-leading 20 interceptions in 2007). In 2008, Palmer injured his elbow three games into the season and missed 12 games. Eventually, it was figured out that there was a partial tear in the area, which helped put into question his arm strength throughout the rest of his career.

The way Palmer eventually exited the franchise may still be the toughest pill to swallow for the franchise, though. A 4-12 2010 season, coupled with behind-the-scenes strife within the organization, pushed Palmer to decide he’d had enough of being the face of a moribund franchise, and he formally requested a trade.

Of course, owner Mike Brown turned that down and tried to strong-arm the quarterback into playing out his contract. Palmer stood firm, even retiring to drive the point home. Eventually, despite an adamant Brown sticking to his guns well into the 2011 season, the stubborn owner finally relented and traded Palmer to the Raiders.

Next: NFL 2018: One breakout candidate for each team

Palmer had all the tools to be the best quarterback this franchise had ever lined up under center; with better health and ownership, this team may well have followed their former #1 overall pick to numerous winning seasons, multiple playoff victories, and possibly even a championship or two somewhere along the way. The hypothetical possibilities are clearly superior to the reality of what happened, though. Cincinnati would go on to have success post-Palmer, but what could have been will always have its own tantalizing draw to it.