Brad Johansen: Carson Palmer Made Numerous Requests For Change In Order To Return

On Monday, Mike Brown confirmed Chris Mortensen's report that Carson Palmer demanded a trade, calling his eventual threat to retire, illogical. Even though this has been known for at least a week inside the Bengals front office, one would ask, what are Palmer's motivations. Of course having Mike Brown as an owner is reason enough, but you're secure enough to know those reasons without a reminder every day from me, aren't you? Fine. We could make those assumptions all day long. Why do the Bengals routinely put in terrible seasons? Mike Brown. Why do the Bengals make questionable draft picks? Mike Brown. Why do the Bengals lose their better free agents? Mike Brown. Why do the Bengals spend too much proportionately on certain players, many of whom are aging veterans on the decline of their careers. Mike Brown. Why did Coke change their formula to new Coke? Why did Anakin Skywalker turn to the Dark Side? Mike Brown. There. Satisfied? Have a burrito.

Moving on.

According to Bengals radio play-by-play man Brad Johansen, during his meeting with Mike Brown last week, Carson Palmer demanded a trade after "numerous requests to Mike Brown for change in order to return."

This is similar to head coach Marvin Lewis' demands for change before he re-signed with the club. Reported changes ranged from improving the scouting department, an indoor practice bubble (or facility), more control over staffing amongst his coaches and even making the choice on which players can be listed as inactive on gameday.

Obviously Carson Palmer's ideas for change will be less specific. In our view, his idea for change will be anything that brings the team to a more stable and sustained form of success. And it wouldn't be entirely too hard to believe that Palmer may have reiterated Lewis' demands to modernize the team.

Unfortunately, if you expected those changes to be visible the moment Brown and Lewis began their press conference, then you probably kicked an empty can down the dirt road. We suspect that the first change, to let us know that the team is changing, would have come from a change in the coaching staff. Yet nothing happened, though Lewis has yet to confirm his 2011 coaching staff and anything could yet happen. The truth is, at this point, aside from the brief news on Lewis, nothing has changed from this last year's offseason to this year. Change that we know of, at least.

And based on that, we don't suspect changes to happen while Lewis will coach a team that will either feature a Palmer-less offense, or a franchise quarterback that would rather retire than return.