Carson Palmer Raiders Trade: Who Got Screwed, Raiders or Bengals?

Carson Palmer has been dealt from the Cincinnati Bengals to the Oakland Raiders just hours before the 2011 NFL trade deadline.

After Palmer spent the first six weeks as retired after failing to force his way off of the team via trade, Bengals owner Mike Brown finally found an offer he couldn't refuse and decided to deal his former franchise quarterback to the West Coast.

The early consensus is that Oakland got waxed in this one given the price the club paid to acquire a 31-year-old signal-caller, but it was a move that the team had to make given its only other viable alternatives on the roster were Kyle Boller and Terrelle Pryor.

Would the Raiders have been better off dealing for Vince Young?

I didn't think so.

What Oakland Gets

The Raiders got a quarterback to replace Jason Campbell, who broke his collarbone in Week 6 and will be forced to miss a significant amount of time (perhaps even the rest of the season), but at what price does it come?

Oakland gave up a first-round pick in 2012 and a conditional first-round pick in 2013, and that's an astronomical price to pay for a quarterback who hasn't played in a single game this season.

According to Chris Mortensen, the conditional first-round pick will be a second-round pick in a worst-case scenario, and the selection elevates if the Raiders win a single playoff game this season.

In fact, that's a sky-high price to pay for any player under any circumstance, and there are only two quarterbacks worth that price: Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

What It Means for Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals expressed no interest in granting Carson Palmer's wish in an effort to fight his way off of the team, but the offer Oakland provided was one that simply couldn't be rejected.

Cincinnati, now 4-2 and with an improving quarterback at the helm in Andy Dalton, has a plethora of intriguing pieces on the roster and they're sitting pretty with Oakland's first-round pick in 2012 no matter how their season goes from this point forward.

It's a clear signal from the Bengals' front office that there is a growing trust in Dalton and the direction of the team, and it's hard to blame them after watching how the club has fared in the initial part of the campaign.

Jason Campbell's Future

Campbell's future was instantly clouded as soon as he broke his collarbone against Cleveland in Week 6 of the action, and the Raiders knew that they were going to be scrambling for help at the position.

Campbell is set to become a free agent at the end of of the year, and despite his solid play this season for the club, he almost certainly won't be back with the Raiders in 2012.

It's going to be tough for any team to trust Campbell's shoulder and arm after coming off surgery if he doesn't have the chance to prove his health prior to the offseason, and that could really negatively impact his next contract regardless of where he signs.

Impact for Terrelle Pryor Going Forward

Terrelle Pryor is a third quarterback for the Oakland Raiders now and for the foreseeable future no matter who is starting and who is holding the clipboard behind the starter.

He's going to need to show significant progress in order to be trusted to capably facilitate an NFL offense no matter what names are ahead of him on the depth chart, and that's something that he's yet to do in his very short career.

There is plenty of time for Pryor to assert his value and prove to be valuable to the franchise in the long haul, but this was a pick made in the supplemental draft with an eye toward the future, not for the present.

Oakland's Playoff Chances

The Raiders have built a team that is built around a solid defense and a dynamic running attack, but any upgrade over Kyle Boller is one that's going to make the team a better one on paper.

It's going to take some time to judge Oakland's playoff chances with a change at the quarterback position given the fact that Palmer is coming off a season where he threw 20 INTs and hasn't played a single snap in 2011, but Oakland fans would undoubtedly rather have Palmer under center than Boller going forward.

The team will have to remain true to its attack that has led them to a 4-2 record and be careful not to adjust the offensive flow to Palmer's presence. Otherwise things could get really sticky for a team that has looked promising thus far.

Cincinnati's Future

Mike Brown was chastised repeatedly throughout the entire Carson Palmer ordeal for his perceived stubbornness and refusal to deal the quarterback, but now he looks like a genius.

Brown was able to net two potential first-round picks for a guy many wouldn't give up a single first-round pick for, and that's quite impressive given the unbelievable amount of money Palmer is still owed over the course of his current contract.

As previously mentioned, the Bengals are playing a lot better than many expected them to in 2011, and now that they've got extra draft picks to continue to improve, the future is looking bright in Cincinnati.

Winner: Bengals

Obviously.

The Bengals get rid of the biggest distraction for the club, moving Palmer completely off of the radar and add two extraordinarily high-end draft picks in the process.

However, the Bengals need to do a better job of drafting than the franchise has shown in past seasons to make this the win that it looks like on paper, and the team hasn't exactly had the best luck with the selection process in the first round over the last couple of decades.

There's a lot to like about what the Bengals are doing and what type of message they're sending to their team, but the ultimate judgment will have to be reserved for when those draft picks are made.

Even if Palmer lights it up in Oakland, the Bengals still come away looking great.