Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the Oakland Raiders approached the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night to inquire about trading for QB Carson Palmer.

The Raiders, who moved to 4-2 yesterday with a win over the Cleveland Browns, have reportedly lost starting QB Jason Campbell for the season with a broken collarbone.

Behind Campbell on the depth chart are Kyle Boller and former Ohio State QB Terrell Pryor. This is bad news for the Raiders because Boller just isn’t very good, and Pryor has yet to even practice after serving a five-game suspension.

The Raiders are contending this season and so going after Palmer is a very smart decision. However, Bengals owner Mike Brown has been steadfast that he will not trade Palmer, who had said that he would rather retire than play another season for Cincinnati.

More after the jump.
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The Cheerleaders get an A+. Source: Yardbarker.com

The initial rush of free agency has long since passed and things have been pretty quiet in Kansas City. We haven’t had any news of any free agents visiting the Chiefs in some time and while it is always possible GM Scott Pioli may still have a few moves planned, it appears as though the Chiefs are through adding talent until after the Draft.

That being the case I thought it would be fun to hand out my grades on what the Chiefs have done thus far to better the team.

Ryan Lilja: A+

In my opinion, this is the best move the Chiefs have made thus far. Lilja is a huge upgrade at over any other guard on the roster, save Brian Waters. Lilja is a true starter which is something the Chiefs need more of as they have backups starting at multiple positions.

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Source: yardbarker.com

Our top two were hard to chose between. Interestingly enough, they both deal with the same topic. Both our top two think the Chiefs MUST do something about the defense. As our 1st runner-up, reader EHUD writes, it all starts with heart. Congratulations to Ehud on a fine article.

Thirtieth in yards allowed.  That’s how our defense performed.  We were best against the pass, ranked 22^nd.  We were 31^st against the run.  To say our defense is not good is an understatement.  What is the reason for this?  Our defense has no heart.

No, I’m not talking about that kind of heart.  C’mon, Tamba Hali is out there so you know it has heart.  I’m talking about the strength of our defensive center.  I’m specifically speaking of nose tackle, inside linebacker, and safety.

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Marshall’s absence is a huge break for the Chiefs. With a 1,000-yard receiver out of the mix, Kansas City will likely be able to scheme Denver similar to the way the defense played Cincinnati last week. S Mike Brown had an excellent game in run-support logging a team-leading 13 tackles. Typically, it’s not a good sign for a safety to be the tackle leader, but many of Brown’s tackles occurred near the line of scrimmage.

For the majority of the game, Brown walked up as an eighth man in the box. He typically rolled to the weak side and ran the cutback ally to counter rushing lines created by Cincinnati’s mammoth offensive line. The scheme was effective, limiting Cincinnati to just 43 rushing yards in the first half before RB Cedric Benson finally broke a 32-yard run on the first play of the third quarter.

Chiefs Game Day Blog With Josh Looney at KC Chiefs.com

4. Color them Brown

It’s a good sign if veteran strong safety Mike Brown wins a starting job ahead of Bernard Pollard. It means the 31-year-old Brown can still make game-turning plays that he did for so many years with Chicago. Other than free safety Jarrad Page, who has shown the knack for making the big play at the right time, that element has long been missing from the Chiefs’ defense. If Brown does win the job, he might be the biggest immediate impact defender acquired by the Chiefs in the offseason, bigger than Tyson Jackson, Zach Thomas or Mike Vrabel.

Um, other than two Oakland games and one pick against Peyton Manning in the playoffs, when has Page really made that many huge plays? And was Teicher sleeping during all the turnovers Pollard was involved in last year. I really can’t wrap my mind around this one. Color them Brown? No, color you stupid.

I just don’t get it. There are a lot of fans, scouts and writers who swear by Pollard. I myself am a Pollard backer. Then there are those who act like dude’s a straight bum. Might as well be Jason Belser back there as far as they’re concerned. More often than not, those are the same people who put Jarrad Page on a pedestal.

Here’s my opinion. Page is a free safety who gets beat way too often on the pass. He also whiffs so often on tackles that I once stated about him, “the only place you’ll see a 44 miss that much is when a blind man goes to the shooting range.” Meanwhile, Pollard is more than adequate for a strong safety in pass coverage, especially considering our pass rush. He’s also a better tackler and stronger against the run.

Look, I like them both, but I definitely scratch my head when people act like Page is unquestionably the better player. What games have you folks been watchin’?

Anybody else agree that Teicher is nuts on this one?