Arizona Cardinals: Planning for life after Carson Palmer

Carson Palmer’s retirement leaves the future of the Arizona Cardinals quarterback position in question moving forward.

Another member of the Arizona Cardinals is calling it quits and this time it is their star quarterback. Carson Palmer announced Tuesday that he would be retiring after 15 seasons in the National Football League per multiple media reports. In a career that spanned 15 seasons, Palmer threw for 46,247 passing yards, 294 touchdowns and 187 interceptions.

A former first-overall pick, he was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003 and named the starter. In 2005, he led the Bengals to a divisional playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, in the first play of that game, he suffered an injury and would not return. It was perhaps a bit of cruel foreshadowing as injuries would be something that would hamper Palmer throughout the course of his career.

Palmer had a brief stop in Oakland before reigniting his career in Arizona. It was there he found renewed success, aided by the combination of Bruce Arians’ system and being surrounded by veteran playmakers such as Larry Fitzgerald. As Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com notes, Arians and Palmer were close. Both joined the Cardinals in the 2013 campaign and both retired within a day of each other.

With Palmer’s retirement, the Cardinals have lost their starting quarterback. Furthermore, they do not have many options to replace Palmer on the roster at the moment. Matt Barkley, Blaine Gabbert, and Drew Stanton are currently on the roster and Stanton is the only one of the trio who has ample starting experience. Stanton played in five games last season throwing for 894 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions.

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The Cardinals now need to shift their focus to accelerating the development of these quarterbacks. As it stands right now, it is anybody’s job. Looking at it from a statistical perspective, Stanton would have a slight advantage here. Nevertheless, all involved need to be ready to compete. This could be a situation where the team is forced to adapt and as a result have a down year. If that happens, be patient Cardinals fans. The pieces are there for success, it just may take a while.