The NFL draft smoke screens and rumors are flying all over the place in recent days.
It's no surprise to former Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, whose agent told him this would all happen to him before the 2003 NFL Draft.
Palmer recounted the story on CBS Sports Radio's Maggie and Perloff.
"He's like here's what's gonna happen," Palmer said about what his agent Dave Dunn told him. "He's predicting a month out 'they're gonna start saying that this was wrong with you, this was wrong with you and so and so's gonna be the No. 1 pick. Now you're going to be the fourth quarterback taken.' And I remember looking at Dave like what? How do you know what's going to be said and sure enough, as time goes by, I'm training and getting ready for the combine. The combine comes and goes, and getting ready for the draft, and all of a sudden at that point on the schedule where he said, Cal quarterback Kyle Boller was gonna be the No. 1 pick, and I was gonna fall to wherever like he was spot on."
The smoke screens clearly didn't affect Cincinnati, who took Palmer No. 1 that year and eventually made the playoffs with him in 2005.
Players like C.J. Stroud and Will Levis are experiencing that rollercoaster ride right now. Luckily for Cincinnati, they pick at No. 28 with a franchise quarterback already in the fold.
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