Cardinals QB Carson Palmer announces his retirement

USA Today

The Arizona Cardinals are heading into a transitional period. The team have learned that their head coach Bruce Arians and quarterback Carson Palmer are both heading into retirement.

Palmer announced his retirement on Tuesday by saying the following, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.

“Over the years I’ve had teammates who decided to hang it up. And I would ask them how they knew when it was time to walk away. The answer was almost always the same: You just know,” Palmer wrote in an open letter to fans. “For me, that time is now. Why? Quite simply I just know.”

Palmer has been plagued by injuries throughout the course of his career in the NFL. Those injuries began to take their toll on the veteran gunslinger the last few years. Retirement rumors persisted heading into the 2017 campaign.

Ultimately, in the same way it does with all NFL players and professional athletes, Father Time caught up with the USC product. A knee injury cut Palmer’s season short and it appears it was enough to convince him his time in the league was over.

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In seven games during the 2017 NFL season, Palmer threw for 1,978 yards, nine touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Palmer played 182 games while throwing for 46,247 yards, 294 touchdowns, and 187 interceptions during his career in the league with three different teams including the Cincinnati Bengals, Oakland Raiders, and Cardinals.

With Palmer and Arians done, the odds of the Cardinals being a force to be reckoned with next season will likely be slim to none unless the team gets lucky with trades, the NFL Draft or in NFL free agency.