Bengals president Mike Brown has no plans to trade Carson Palmer by Tuesday's NFL trading deadline, has no long-range agenda concerning his former franchise quarterback, and believes rookie Andy Dalton is the man for the future.
The next available window to deal Palmer after Oct. 18 is next March at the start of the new league year.
"It would be an option to trade any player, but we have not looked that far ahead," Brown said of trading Palmer before the 2012 draft. "I'm not focused on it."
Brown told Bengals.com and The Cincinnati Enquirer Thursday that it is unlikely the Bengals are going to make a trade by Tuesday.
"There are none discussed or processed as we speak," he said. "I've had my say on it. That's all there is to say."
Which means the Bengals still continue to consider Palmer as a retired player. Brown also considers Dalton next in line after being impressed with poise he says he hasn't seen from some good quarterbacks until their third season or so.
"He's our quarterback now and doing very well," Brown said. "I'm pleased with how he's doing and I think he can be the guy here."
NOT SO FINE: It turned out to be the most expensive football Bengals running back Bernard Scott ever bought. And he never got to keep it.
Scott says he's been fined $5,000 for throwing the ball into the stands in Jacksonville after he scored the winning touchdown Sunday on a two-yard run. He was aiming for his family in the upper deck and came up a little short in more ways than one.
"If I knew it was a fine, I never would have done it," Scott said. "That's a lot of money."
It didn't reach his family, but Scott says a Jacksonville fan threw it back on the field, but he didn't get it back. Maybe he can make that part of the appeal process.
"Have to appeal it," Scott said. "It's worth a shot."
GRESH RECALL: Speaking of Palmer, tight end Jermaine Gresham's massive rookie season could be summed in about 13 minutes. It was last year against the Colts when he caught nine balls in the fourth quarter, including a 19-yard touchdown from Palmer that cut the Indy lead to 23-17 and forced a successful onside kick. But he fumbled moments later to seal the loss.
"Highs and lows, no question," Gresham said before Thursday's practice.
He remembers Palmer telling him after the game, "You've got to approach the game like you're going to be the best."
"So I just try to take that to heart," Gresham said, "and prepare in that sense. It definitely pushed me harder just to know I have so much to achieve and I have so far to go. It motivated me to work harder. It was bitter. We lost. That's all that matters is that we didn't pull a win out and it's a game we should have won, so it was tough."
Gresham took it to a big heart. With the Colts looming again, he's coming off huge catches on third and fourth down in the last two fourth-quarter comebacks and is on pace for 10 touchdowns (most ever by a Bengals tight end) and 67 catches, four short of Dan Ross' Bengals record for a tight end.
