Bengals Wide Receiver Jerome Simpson Hopes That Carson Palmer Returns

Rather than going home after the Super Bowl, writes Geoff Hobson, Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson redirected a flight to Cincinnati with the team hiring a new offensive coordinator. Actually, he redirected to Cincinnati. It's not like he was in the sky having the pilot change destinations to Cincinnati. I mean, Simpson had an impressive finish last year, but it's not like he's Jack Bauer impressive, who would crash a plane full of people to get an audio recording of an evil sitting President that would be erased anyway because of a squirmy intelligence analyst (season 5). He wanted knowledge (Simpson, not Bauer). He wanted to know what to expect. Though with the looming issues that's bringing about way too much uncertainty with the team, Simpson chimed in with his quarterback demanding a trade:

"He's my quarterback. He's my bro. I'll support him and I hope he's our quarterback this year," said Simpson, who still plans to go to California at some point and throw with Palmer. "Everyone wants to throw with Carson. He's one of the elite quarterbacks and I'm going to take advantage of that."

Come on, Carson. Don't you see the face of a younger wide receiver?

But the truth is, as Butch writes, the Bengals wide receiver is excited about the team's changes on offense.

"I'm not going to give it all away," said Simpson after his first session, which he characterized as an informal meeting with receivers coach Mike Sheppard. "The only thing I'm going to give away is it's going to be wide open. We're going to use the personnel and the talent we have. I can see it already and we haven’t run a play yet. It's getting set up that we're going to use everybody on this team at every position. From tight ends to wide receivers to running backs."

Hopefully not too much was revealed to Sheppard.

Simpson finished 2010 with 18 receptions for 247 yards receiving and three touchdowns in the final two games of the season -- including a 12-reception effort against the Baltimore Ravens defense in week 17.

As we get closer to the NFL Draft, we'll begin examining if the Bengals should put their eggs in Simpson's basket while not drafting a wide receiving in the first round (ala, not drafting A.J. Green because of Simpson).