Carson Palmer will miss his fifth straight game, and his sixth of the past seven games, Sunday as the Bengals host the Philadelphia Eagles. Palmer spent the weekend with doctors around the West Coast, trying to find anyone, just one person, giving him a reason to play this season.

Lewis said last week that the time frame expanded from after the bye week until late November. The Bengals are honoring Palmer's wish to not place him on Injured Reserve because Palmer doesn't want to abandon his teammates; though most of them have expressed support if he shut the season down anyway.

Houshmandzadeh said that "you want to play because this is what you love to do and it's fun, but you have to think beyond that and be reasonable and understand you have a career ahead of yourself," receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said Monday. "It's never dawned on me that Carson would come back and play. I've always thought that: just rest and get ready for next year. The way this has gone, there's no reason to put him out there and jeopardize next year or the rest of his career."

The irony here is that if the Bengals don't franchise Houshmandzadeh, he may never see another Palmer pass. If Palmer doesn't take another snap, and no one with any convincing interest with Bengals knowledge believes that he will, then he'll record his first season with more interceptions (4) than touchdowns (3).