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Carson Palmer threw 32 touchdown passes last season.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer said he is not well enough to play Friday, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday.

"I'm not going to cover anything up," Palmer told the newspaper. "I've got nothing to hide. I'm not going out there until I'm 100 percent. And I don't feel like I have to hide anything about that. If I was going to go out there and do something silly and try to play at 85 percent, then that's not the best thing for me or the organization. This organization wants me to be 100 percent."

Coach Marvin Lewis has said Palmer will not start the regular-season opener if he does not play in any of the team's four preseason games, the Inquirer reported.

Lewis would then start Anthony Wright, a journeyman who signed this spring as a free agent and appears to have the No. 2 job over Doug Johnson.

Palmer, who finished second to the Colts' Peyton Manning in efficiency rating last season and threw 32 touchdown passes, suffered two torn ligaments in his left knee and a dislocated kneecap in a Jan. 8 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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