What Hue Jackson called "probably the greatest trade in football" turned out to be just another transaction line.
The Raiders missed the playoffs with quarterback Carson Palmer.
They could have missed the playoffs just fine without him.
Now, the so-called "greatest trade" looks like a flop.
"It was this year," Palmer acknowledged.
It will be said that the quarterback couldn't get the Raiders to the playoffs, but Palmer held up his end of the bargain Sunday by throwing for 417 yards, with two touchdowns and a 102.6 passer rating.
Still, the third biggest passing day in franchise history was barely enough to keep the defenseless Raiders in the game. The San Diego Chargers never even had to punt during a 38-26 victory at O.co Coliseum.
Jackson was quick to point the fingers at the locker room for the collapse, saying that he was tired for covering up for his players.
Palmer, meanwhile, took the high road: He blamed himself.
"I always feel that when you don't win, the quarterback can always play better," he said. "I can definitely play better next year."
At those last two words, Palmer caught himself.
"It stinks to sit here and say, 'Next year,' " he said, after a brief pause. "You have to let this one settle in, look back at this entire season, find out why it didn't work out and why you didn't win the game when you had chances. You have to look to the
future."The Raiders gambled big when they acquired the semiretired former Pro Bowl quarterback from the Cincinnati Bengals in October. They shipped a 2012 first-round pick and a conditional second-rounder in 2013 that would become another first if the Raiders made it to the AFC title game in either of the next two years.
In the immediate, giddy wake of the trade, Jackson went so far as to suggest that Palmer was the missing piece.
"I think this team is poised to win whatever we need to win," the coach said the day the prized quarterback arrived. "I said that before. We're not putting people on the team just to put them on there. We're chasing a championship.
"I'm not going to tell you I'm going to be disappointed if we don't, but I'll probably be mad if we didn't."
Well, at least that last part was on the money. Jackson was indeed steaming mad after the loss, especially after hearing that the Denver Broncos lost, too. The door was open for the Raiders to make the postseason for the first time since 2002.
Palmer didn't hear about the Broncos loss until about a half-hour after the game. That's when his frustration doubled.
"Absolutely," he said. "We came into the game hoping and wishing and with our fingers crossed about other games. Then to find out it worked out the way you needed it to?"
He said his mind immediately flashed back to a loss to the Detroit Lions, when the Raiders allowed two long scoring drives in the final minutes.
He had his regrets from this one, too. The Raiders reached the red zone three times but managed only one touchdown.
"If you don't score enough points to win, you look at all the areas -- the times you didn't convert on third down, the times you had to kick field goals as opposed to touchdowns," Palmer said. "When you're playing a team that is hot on offense like (the Chargers), field goals don't get it done. You have to get seven when you get down there."
In his 10 games (nine starts) with the Raiders, Palmer wound up averaging 305.9 passing yards per game. He threw 13 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions.
The Raiders went 4-6 after his arrival, 4-5 with him as the starter.
Apparently, the "greatest trade in football" is going to need more time to pay off.
"It's going to be a long offseason," Palmer said. "We have a lot of things to figure out."
Contact Daniel Brown at dbrown@mercurynews.com.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_19657776?source=rss
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