Bengals open without Palmer

Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Ky.

The Bengals started a new era in their history on Friday, opening training camp without Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco for the first time in nine years.

Not a good start.

The Bengals went 4-12 last year, then had one of the worst offseasons in franchise history, which is saying a lot. Palmer decided he’d rather retire than play another day in Cincinnati, players got arrested and many fan wrote off the franchise as hopeless.

The Bengals lost cornerback Johnathan Joseph, who signed with Houston as a free agent, on the eve of camp. The cornerback who was first in line to replace him — Adam “Pacman” Jones — can’t fully practice for a few weeks because he’s still recovering from neck surgery.

Linebacker Keith Rivers also is sidelined following wrist surgery, leaving the defense with a lot of big holes. Coordinator Mike Zimmer was visibly glum as he wheeled his luggage up to his dorm room at Georgetown College, where the Bengals will have their first workout today.

“I’ve been in the tank since 6 o’clock last night,” Zimmer said, referring to the time he heard Joseph was leaving. “But I’m going to get out of it quick.”

Joseph teamed with Leon Hall to form one of the league’s steadiest cornerback tandems. The Bengals allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent, but seemed confident they would be able to keep him. Zimmer was told to expect him back when the NFL’s lockout ended. The Bengals even assigned him a dorm room for camp and put his name on the green front door.

So much for that.

“The contingency right now is to figure out who the next guy is, whether he’s here in training camp or he’s on the street somewhere or he’s on another team or he’s in Canada,” Zimmer said. “Who knows? We’ve got to find somebody who can play.”

The Bengals didn’t assign a dorm room for Palmer — no shock there.

Palmer stunned the organization by asking for a trade. He said he would rather retire than play another year for one of the NFL’s most forlorn franchises, with only two winning records in the last 20 years.

Owner Mike Brown insisted this week that he wouldn’t trade Palmer, who was placed on a reserve list for players who didn’t report to camp on Friday.

“People just realized he was frustrated,” offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth said of Palmer. “But there’s a lot of teams around the league that have frustrating years, and it doesn’t mean you quit and walk away.”

Cincinnati signed two more draft choices — guard Clint Boling from Georgia (fourth round) and running back Jay Finley from Baylor (seventh round). That gives them six draft picks under contract, including first-round pick A.J. Green, who agreed to a four-year deal on Thursday.

Quarterback Andy Dalton, taken in the second round, hadn’t yet signed an agreement Friday.