Palmer Gaining Respect with the Cardinals, Will His Third Team be the Charm?

After last season’s quarterback roulette and their dismal 5-11 record, the Arizona Cardinals made lots of offseason changes and one of its key ones was to bring in Carson Palmer as their quarterback.

Time will tell how this works out but so far so good.

Carson Palmer

This week, Palmer’s teammate defensive lineman Calais Campbell made the bold proclamation that his team can win the NFC West. Why? Palmer.

He said via CBS Sports.com, “I don’t want to disrespect anyone but now we have a real quarterback to go with a good defense. When we play with a lead, we’re hard to beat. This is the first time in years that we have an offense that matches our defense.”

You can’t help but ask if Campbell momentarily had a memory lapse as for his division competition: the San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Seahawks and the St. Louis Rams.

Campbell added, “I was talking to Carson the other day and he said he’s never really played with a good defense before. I told him it’s been awhile since I played with a good quarterback.”

Arizona’s defense was one bright spot last year for the team as it sat at No. 12 for yards allowed. This compares to Arizona’s offense which only scored 250 points. One team fared worse and that was the Kansas City Chiefs at 211.

But will Palmer really be the guy to get it done? At 33, he’s on his third team.

Last season with the Oakland Raiders , he threw for 4,018 yards (61.1% pass completion) with 22 touchdowns and 14 picks for an 85.3 rating. In his trade to the Cardinals, Palmer took a pay cut that will come with an $8 million annual payday in each of the two upcoming seasons.

Larry Fitzgerald

One key to Palmer’s success in Arizona will be his relationship with his wide receiver, Larry Fitzgerald. The two appear to be off to a good start and Fitzgerald knows Palmer will be vital for him to get his career back on track.

The wide receiver had a rough 2012 season, snapping his five-year streak of 1,000 yard seasons with his 798 yards and career-low four touchdown receptions.

He’ll need his production to go up to match his upcoming hefty paydays. This season he will make a $5 million for a guaranteed base salary. This comes before next season’s compensation will rise to $13 million (this is guaranteed for only an injury) and then in 2015, he’ll make $16.25 million.

Fitzgerald, 30, said via USA Today,  “Look, this is a big year for me, coming off my worst season as a pro. I know Carson wants to play well this year. This is a huge year, and we’re leaning on each other. It’s simple as that. I need him as bad as anybody, and I’m going to go out there and give everything I can for him.”

Palmer and Fitzgerald had been practicing at the University of Minnesota recently at the wide receiver’s annual summer workouts. Also in attendance were Palmer’s fellow quarterbacks, backups Drew Stanton and Ryan Lindley along with the other wide receivers.

Both players feel a sense of urgency for this season and Palmer said after the Minnesota workouts to USA Today, “That’s the goal is to come into training camp and be ready, not have a day or two where you’re kind of getting back into the swing of things and try to get rhythm and timing down. It’s just a good chance to work some of the kinks out and talk about plays, talk about angles of routes and clean some of those things up.”

For the Cardinals, they sit at 5 1/2 (+120 o, -150 u) for a 2013 regular season win total and +12500 per Bovada to win the 2014 Super Bowl.

Good luck!