Palmer May Hit Rock Bottom

There are things worse than being a Cincinnati Bengal, especially if one becomes a Bengal by being the No. 1 NFL draft choice and signing a contract worth millions of dollars.

So this isn’t intended as a plea for sympathy for Carson Palmer. But anyone who likes the USC quarterback, who thinks Palmer has suffered well the boos, endured stoically the rotating roster of position coaches and misconceived offensive schemes during his first three years as a Trojan might want to cross your fingers and hope.

Hope that Palmer has not made himself so good, so popular, so indispensable a quarterback that the Bengals must take him as the No. 1 draft pick next spring.

Boomer Esiason has a feeling he knows what Palmer is thinking. Esiason knows that Palmer is a polite young man who is careful with his words and who would never say this.

“But he wants to,” Esiason says. “I know Carson is saying to himself, ‘I pray to God I’m not drafted No. 1, I pray to God the Bengals don’t take me.’ It’s what everybody has been saying the last few years.”

It hurts Esiason to say this. Esiason was a Bengal. He went to the Super Bowl. He likes the city and the fans and no player wants to think the place where he became famous, became a star, achieved goals, has become the most dreaded stopping point in professional sports.

Palmer is riding high. He is cuddling the Heisman Trophy, practicing for an intriguing Orange Bowl matchup against Iowa. He has impressed college football fans with his humble, heartfelt surprise and exultation at winning college football’s best and biggest individual award.

And now this.

Now Palmer might become the NFL’s No. 1 pick. Just like Ki-Jana Carter.

In 1995 Carter, after helping lead Penn State to an undefeated season, after missing out on the Heisman mostly because teammate Kerry Collins earned a bunch of votes too, Carter smiled wide and celebrated being the No. 1 pick, even if it was to the Bengals. What an honor. What a career to look forward to.

Carter never played a game in 1995. He tore up a knee in training camp. Bad luck or bad preparation, by the coaches or Carter? Who knows? But Carter, who is out of the league, ended up playing in only 35 games over five seasons with the Bengals and gaining only 747 yards.

A year earlier Dan Wilkinson, “Big Daddy,” an Ohio State hero, a huge, fast, mean, defensive tackle, was the No. 1 pick. By the end of his second Bengal season, Wilkinson was vocally unhappy. It took Wilkinson four seasons to escape to the Redskins, but he hasn’t had the career of Pro Bowl appearances that seemed likely.

Akili Smith wasn’t a No. 1 pick. He was No. 3. But Smith was a successful, happy, riding-high Pac-10 quarterback from Oregon when the Bengals made him their first-round pick in 1999. In nearly four complete seasons, Smith has played in 22 games. He is, by several accounts, bitter and discouraged because he fears his career is over. Worse, he feels his career never had a chance to begin.

Because he’s a Bengal.

“Recent history shows this isn’t the best place to get drafted,” said Dave Lapham. Lapham is another former Bengal and now a radio announcer for the team and college TV broadcaster.

“Carson has played himself into a potential No. 1 and that should be awesome for him,”

Lapham said. “It’s sad that it’s not because the prospect of becoming a Bengal isn’t appealing. I know that. Maybe the only thing Carson can hope for is that he’s become so well thought of that other teams will want to trade for the pick. There’s rumors out of Washington that [Steve] Spurrier and [owner Dan] Snyder are in love with him and want him to be the guy.”

Being benched every other pass incompletion or becoming the next David Klingler, those are the choices?

Klingler was a Bengal savior in 1992, Cincinnati’s first-round choice, the run-and-shoot magician from Houston. Klingler played 31 games over four years for the Bengals. Most of them were awful and by the time Klingler escaped to Oakland in 1996 his confidence was gone and his game was in ruins.

That’s because owner Mike Brown has, Esiason says, “a skewed view” of football, making it particularly unsettling to be a quarterback for Brown’s team.

“In Mike Brown’s world,” Esiason said, “it’s all about the quarterback. Mike is just convinced, always has been, that if he can only find his Brett Favre or Joe Montana or Michael Vick or Donovan McNabb, he’s got the simple fix for an ailing franchise without understanding that without all the other support, all you’ve done is put a young kid in a no-win situation.”

There are other failings of Brown, a former Dartmouth quarterback, according to Esiason and Lapham. On Brown-created teams there is little concern about locker-room harmony or team chemistry. There is little attention paid to scouting or training staff. There is never enough support staff.

“I can see Mike drafting Carson but keeping Jon Kitna and Akili Smith around,” Esiason said. Kitna is now the starter. “Can’t you see the quarterback meeting every week, Kitna and Smith bitterly unhappy and both thinking they should be starting and Carson sitting in the middle?”

Several draft experts, including ESPN’s Mel Kiper, are projecting Palmer to be the No. 1 pick. If the Bengals lose today to go 1-14, they guarantee themselves that pick.

Since Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000 (yes, it’s named after Mike’s dad), the Bengals have won 11 of 46 games and only seven of 23 in Cincinnati. They are 0-7 at home this year. The new stadium is getting emptier and emptier. Brown notices that.

Brown is getting embarrassed weekly by the foibles and fumbles of the Bengals. Last weekend the Bengals suffered a penalty at a key time for having 12 men on the field for a punt. In Game 14 of a 16-game season, Coach Dick LeBeau’s team can’t execute the simplest of plays.

“Look,” Esiason said, “it’s not the stadium, it’s not the practice facility that’s the trouble. It’s the internal way this franchise does business. That said, I can’t imagine Mike bringing Dick LeBeau back. Mike might finally understand he needs to hire somebody who has had some success attributed to him, who is a strong personality and maybe Mike will let that guy do things the right way.

“Because this isn’t a terrible situation. There’s a great running back [Corey Dillon] and an offensive line that’s pretty good. And no matter what, if Carson’s picked No. 1 he’s going to have to be paid, and paid handsomely, no matter what. So let’s not hear violins in sympathy.”

Then Esiason added one more word.

“Yet.”

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.