Carson Palmer is 33 years old, an interception machine, and hasn’t made a Pro Bowl since 2006, but the Arizona Cardinals think he can still be an elite quarterback.
Cardinals GM Steve Keim says he began to study Palmer immediately after he was promoted to the top spot in Arizona’s front office three months ago.
The more Keim looked at Palmer, the more he liked what he saw, and what he saw was a guy still in the prime of his career.
“We started doing our due diligence on Carson in January,” Keim told the Arizona Republic. “And with our new video system, I was able to cut up every one of his passing plays for the last three seasons. I came away very, very pleasantly surprised. A lot of times in this business, you base your opinions on reputations. And when you study a guy, you come away disappointed or surprised. In this case, I saw that Carson still has the zing and can still make all the throws. That’s huge, especially with what Bruce [Arians] wants out of his quarterback.”
Keim feels the addition of Palmer changes everything offensively for the Cardinals.
“Adding a piece like Carson to the puzzle really does energize everybody,” Keim said. “He’s a plug-and-play guy with lots of experience, who has seen every NFL defense. His career speaks for itself.”
Palmer passed for 4,018 yards and complete 61.1 percent of his passes last season for the Raiders, and should be able to be extremely productive throwing to Larry Fitzgerald.
