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NFL Network's Michael Lombardi, once believed to be a general manager candidate for the 49ers, conjectures that San Francisco could at least make a phone call to Mike Brown and the Cincinnati Bengals regarding Carson Palmer's status, who demanded to be traded this offseason.
"Well knowing Mike Brown as well as I know Mike Brown, owner of the Cincinnati Bengals, he's not going to trade him. But if you to play the game, look for the San Francisco 49ers to at least make a phone call. They need a veteran quarterback. David Dunn represents a lot of the members of the 49ers front office and their head coach. He also represents Carson Palmer. I stress this strongly. Mike Brown is a man of his world. When he says he's not going to do something, he's not going to do it."
San Francisco fans are debating whether they even want Palmer, few even entertaining the idea of sacrificing their seventh overall pick for the quarterback. That's right. Fans of a team that watched Alex Smith and Troy Smith compete for playing time with David Carr being the only quarterback signed for 2011, are debating whether or not Palmer is even worth having.
Not that I would even suggest that trading your seventh overall pick for Palmer is a good idea, but if Mike Brown does change his mind, the cost for another team to acquire Palmer would, at the very least, be a first round pick, if not two. Then again, we know how Brown likes paying first round picks, so maybe he'll go for second round picks because that means he pays less to draft picks.