According to the team’s official website, the Bengals are taking Carson Palmer’s threat to be traded or retire “quite seriously” and will kick the tires on all kinds of quarterback options this offseason. One option might be to draft a quarterback with the No. 4 overall pick so that they’re not stuck with Carson’s brother Jordan at the top of their depth chart next season.

It figures that this report would surface three days after I put together a post titled, “Three reasons why Carson Palmer will remain a Bengal.” Timing is everything in life and mine is somewhere between horrendous and awful.

If the Bengals do decide to draft a quarterback, either Blaine Gabbert or Cam Newton could be available in the first round depending on what the Panthers and Bills do ahead of them. Many mock drafts have Carolina selecting Gabbert with the top overall pick and Buffalo picking Newton at No. 3. One option the Bengals have is to see how the first three picks play out and then go from there.

But the problem with that strategy is that if they do select a quarterback at No. 4, Palmer’s trade value will dip even lower than it already is. At that point the Bengals might not care about releasing him because they have their quarterback of the future, but the ideal situation would be to know whether or not Palmer will be on the roster before the draft and then act accordingly. They don’t want to be stuck in a situation where they bypass a QB in the draft and then watch Palmer retire a week later. If they could acquire a draft pick or two for Palmer now, then they’ll know heading into the draft whether or not they have to select a quarterback.

Of course, which team in their right mind would want to take on Palmer’s salary and part with draft picks to acquire him? He’s owed $11.5 million each of the next two years, $13 million in 2013 and $14 million in 2014. Considering he’s mostly just a game manager at this point in his career, I highly doubt Cincinnati will be able to trade him this offseason.

Thus, the best option for the Bengals is probably to convince him to return to the ‘Natti for at least another year and then maybe draft a QB like Ricky Stanzi or Andy Dalton in the later rounds. Either way I don’t envy the Bengals’ situation.