Former Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer: Not trusting organization adds pressure, stress

Carson Palmer, the Cincinnati Bengals' starting quarterback for seven seasons, was critical of his former team in remarks he made during a podcast interview with John Middlekauff during 3 and Out, part of the Colin Cowherd Podcast Network.

Middlekauff and Palmer discussed a number of topics during the episode. Here's how Palmer compared the Bengals to the other NFL teams for which he played:

(The Oakland Raiders) were just a solid organization. ... And we built something special. We got better every year. ... We continued to improve and make strides and so it was just so comforting - coming from Cincinnati, who is a whole nother kind of mess and disaster. So coming from that and then going to Oakland and then all of a sudden, I got to Arizona, I was like, man, this is the NFL. This is how you're supposed to do it. This is right. And it was just so comforting. And so much less stress and pressure.

There's so much pressure on quarterbacks as it is. When you have to worry about some idiot making the decision on a roster move, or hiring coaches, or some of the stuff you have to worry about ... when you have that added pressure and stress of not trusting the organization and knowing that they don't know what they're doing, that's just an added amount of stress you don't need as a young player. And going through that and seeing that and then getting to Arizona and going through what I went through in Cincinnati and what I went through in Oakland and then winning and appreciating the wins. And then winning a bunch ... it really let me really enjoy each win. My five years in Arizona were so much fun because we were winning and I knew how to enjoy it because I knew the other side of it. I knew what it was like to be bad, and be on a bad, bad team. ... Unfortunately, it took me too long to get (to Arizona). But it was refreshing, no doubt.

From the jump ... everybody, every single person - NFL people, agents, ex-quarterbacks I had talked to that were since retired and moved on - said, 'You can't go to Cincinnati. You can't go to Cincinnati. It's a quarterback graveyard.' ... I, at the time, was arrogant, young dumb, 20-year-old kid, and I was like, 'I'm gonna go there and make a difference. I'm gonna go there and change it. I don't care what all these people are saying.' ... I was naive. I didn't want to believe it and want to hear it. And I thought, 'Well, they haven't had me. I'll go there and change it.' ... I thought I was the difference-maker. I thought, 'The organization doesn't matter. The players on the field are what matters.' And I was 100 percent wrong. All that matters is the organization. Because great organizations get the right players. So I was wrong on that. And it was just an accumulation of so many things.

We won our division. We got good one year. We were close to getting good and we needed some key pieces. And I had gone to the organization and was like ... we need a couple players here, a couple players there ... and then of course the offseason comes, and nothing happens. Nothing changes. And it was year after year. In order to win in the NFL ... you've got to be desperate to win a championship. You've got to be all in. The financials and the money side of it are very important obviously to owners, and to everybody that's invested in the organization. But if the most important thing is the financials and the second-most important thing is winning, then you don't have a chance. And it's so important that ownership is willing to do what it takes to win. ... If you just kinda sit there and hope that things fall your way, you've got to get really, really lucky to win a championship. But if you're desperate and you're willing to do what it takes and you'll spend to go get this player. ... You've got to be consistently trying to build a championship team. If you're just kinda sitting there and hoping somebody falls in your lap, it's hard to do it that way. You've got to have the ball bounce your way a number of times in the playoffs. And you've got to get lucky here and get lucky there. You look at New England and there's not a lot of luck. And lot of that is built specifically. You look at what Pittsburgh's done the last 20 years, there's not a lot of luck involved in that ... you look at what Seattle's done, there's not a lot of luck. ... That's not hoping that somebody falls to you in the draft. That's being manipulative of the draft and moving players and churning up rosters and building the right chemistry in the locker room and there's so much that goes into it, it's just not a lucky thing. In order to be successful in the NFL, the organization is of the utmost importance.