The NFL trade deadline isn’t like that of baseball and basketball where we see names and players flying everywhere for team’s attempts to either dump salaries or gear up for the playoffs. Being that football is so much more of a team and system sport, it’s very hard for players, especially key position players, to join a new team and get integrated in the system quickly.

However, that didn’t stop the Oakland Raiders, who sit at 4-2 in a race for the AFC West, from trading for a quarterback to replace the injured Jason Campbell who’s out 6-8 weeks with a broken collarbone. The QB they landed is Carson Palmer from the Bengals. Palmer, who was once the Bengals franchise quarterback, has been “retired” this season.

He wanted to be traded but the Bengals said no, forcing Palmer to opt for retirement rather than finish out his contract. This was an ugly PR battle between the Bengals owner Mike Brown and Palmer, who were taking jabs at each other in the media at the beginning of the season.

Brown said they wouldn’t trade Palmer and agreed to let him sit at home as the Bengals went and drafted TCU’s Andy Dalton. Dalton has been playing well as the Bengals also sit at 4-2 and it might have factored into Brown’s decision to let Palmer go. However, the main reason was probably that Oakland made an offer he couldn’t refuse.

In return for Palmer, the Bengals get a first round draft pick in 2012 and a conditional second round pick in 2013 that could become a first round pick if the Raiders make it to the AFC title game this season. To many, this seems like a very steep price to play for a QB who many deem to be past his prime and who has been sitting at home, thus far this season.

However, given the Raiders options — either using backup Kyle Boller or sign a free-agent QB — none of whom are very good, they decided to go with the ‘win now’ approach. The Raiders are excited to get Palmer and he represents a dramatic upgrade from Campbell. The question now becomes how quickly he can get up to speed.

“I just know if I was on the streets for a while I’d need about, myself personally to knock the rust off as a defensive lineman, I’d need personally about three weeks to get back into form,” Richard Seymour said. Palmer has been named the starter for their game this weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Coach Hue Jackson worked with Palmer in Cincinnati and said much of the terminology is similar which should help speed up Palmer’s ability to learn the playbook. Palmer and receivers Darrius Heyward-Bey and Jacoby Ford have been staying after practice to get extra reps, in an attempt to have some sort of chemistry when they hit the field this Sunday.

“It’s just a matter of the timing, he has to get that down and get used to the offense and has to get used to new receivers,” Ford said. “Whenever we can do that we’ll be clicking on all cylinders.

The Raiders paid a high price to get Palmer, but if you ask anyone in the Raiders organization or their fans, I’m sure they will tell you that for a team who hasn’t made the playoffs since 2002, when they lost in the Super Bowl, they’d take a trip to the AFC Championship or Super Bowl over a few draft picks any day.

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For all the Super Bowl talk and two looming games in Baltimore and Foxboro, the Jets should be able to win an easy game against the Raiders right? WRONG. The Jets returned to Oakland, and looked not like a Super Bowl contender, but like a confused team with a lack of identity.

The Jets defense was manhandled all day by the Raiders. On the first drive, they came out and drove 76 yards down the field on five plays to go up 7-0. Darren McFadden tore up the Jets’ “vaunted” rush defense for 171 yards and two touchdowns, proving why he is one of the best running backs in the game right now. The Raiders had 230+ yards on the ground, and Jason Campbell managed a good game for Oakland.

The Jets couldn’t tackle all game as everyone was missing open field tackles that allowed Oakland to break off big plays, the biggest being McFadden’s 70 yard TD run. The only bright spot in the Jets’ defense was Darrelle Revis who had his usual game of shutting down the best receiver, who was Darrius Heyward-Bey this week.

His counterpart Antonio Cromartie, who earlier in the week said he was a better play-maker than Nnamdi Asomugha, was forced to eat those words as he had a horrible game. Committing four penalties, keeping scoring drives alive, and fumbling a ball on a kickoff, which lead to the game-winning score, Cromartie was humbled by the Raiders, who, by the way, don’t have Asomugha anymore. Cromartie eventually left the game with a rib injury and didn’t return.

On the flip side, Mark Sanchez and the Jets’ offense showed flashes of brilliance, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Raiders. Everyone thought the problem going into the game would be the absence of All-Pro C Nick Mangold, but rookie Colin Baxter held up in his first career start as the Jets ran better than they had all season at times.

Sanchez posted a career high with 369 yards, but played a terrible game. He looked jittery in the pocket all game and the few times his receivers were open, he couldn’t hit them. The numbers say Sanchez had a better game than what showed as for two quarters the Jets couldn’t get anything done against the Raiders. Sanchez was sacked four times in the second half and took a lot of abuse.

It was also another bad running game by Jets standards as Shonn Greene only had 59 yards on 15 carries. There were a few runs that got broken, but the Jets struggled with their interior running, and were only able to gain a yard or so whenever they ran up the middle.

The Jets showed life on a late drive by Sanchez and company, marching 93 yards to score, but it was too little too late. The Jets now look ahead to the tough part of their road trip, falling a game behind the Bills, no typo, yes, the Bills, for first place in the AFC East.

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