Quote Originally Posted by Brian Baldwin
Palmer looked great in his return. It just bugs me no end that the Bengals try to put all their eggs in his basket though. They're a very good team without him also. Yet they often feel that without Palmer they don't stand a chance. Someone on that team other than Palmer or Lewis needs to step up and be a leader and say... Ok... We lost Palmer for a bit. That sucks but lets win this Mother******!!! Because they can and should be able to play without him. Palmer would be a crap QB in many eyes if the other members weren't doing their job also so obviously talent isn't lacking. That tells me Palmer is integral but shouldn't be key.
This is mostly true...

But, I think the inability to deliver without Palmer last year was simply because Kitna just flat out wasn't the man for the job.

Kitna excelled at the short range game. And this was fine when the Bengals didn't have any sort of a running game! But, with the Bengals getting their running game up to snuf, there simply was no need for a QB that could only deliver at short range. This was very apparent when Kitna stepped in after Palmer's injury. He just couldn't make many medium range plays and even fewer long range plays.

Anthony Wright is a much more well rounded QB than Kitna was and with him now in the #2 QB spot, I think that should a situation arise where Palmer cannot play, the situation will be much more different than it was last year.