Raiders shouldn’t give up on Carson Palmer
Let’s get something straight Raider Nation. The Oakland Raiders need Carson Palmer to remain on the team if this team has any chance of recovering in the next couple of seasons, because the, “Let’s throw Palmer under the bus.” rhetoric is getting a little tired at this point.
The 2012, 4-12 season wasn’t Palmer’s fault and any person who tries to argue otherwise is not living in reality. I’d like see any quarterback try to succeed with limited receiving options, an offensive line running a blocking scheme with an offensive coordinator that doesn’t know how to run the scheme properly, running backs that can’t stay healthy, a defense that leaks like a sieve and a rookie head coach who struggles to manage the team properly in his first season.
Carson Palmer: Thearon W. Henderson
That was the Raiders 2012 season in as small a nutshell as possible, and Palmer still found a way to throw for 4,000+ yards, while throwing fewer interceptions in five more games than the previous season. The offense wasn’t as explosive in 2012, but how can it be when the talent around you regresses with an offensive coordinator who purposely makes the offense less explosive?
Palmer succeeded despite those restraints to the best of his ability, and now we want to throw him under the bus when it’s clear we have talent that can be salvaged? The media are honestly contemplating releasing Palmer over players like Darrius Heyward-Bey and Tommy Kelly?
The truth is releasing Palmer in favor of Terrelle Pryor is a boom or bust proposition for the Raiders. The Raiders either succeed with an unproven quarterback, or fail to a likely 1st overall selection in the 2014 draft.
Why should the Raiders put themselves into a two option situation? Why should the Raiders give up on Palmer before the team even begins to take shape?
Palmer has shown to still have the ability to lead a team to the Playoffs with the right supporting cast. If the defense of the Raiders was better, and the rushing offense was actually effective; who knows what the Raiders could have accomplished in 2012.
Palmer is being paid like a starting quarterback in the NFL, because that’s what he is. He is the most important player on this team now, and his pay reflects that fact.
And he’s only 33 years old. He’s only one year older than Tony Romo and two years younger than Tom Brady. It’s not like Palmer is carrying a walker onto the field before he drops back to throw a pass.
The point of all this is that Palmer deserves another season on the Raiders, and if Palmer is released; it may setback the Raiders for many seasons to come.
James Cobern is a Featured Journalist for TPF and can be contacted at JCobern@ThePenaltyFlagBlog.com.
Thank you Man I’m tired of all these so called raiders fans calling out palmer. The thing I noticed from palmer this past year was he never gave up even when he got benched for pryor he showed he is willing to do anything for the team he isn’t going to sit on the bench and pout like a baby he is mature and he wants Pryor to succeed. Pryor just needs to wait until after this year to really see where is he is at.
I just don’t think Pryor is ready. He never was a Pro ready product and Palmer isn’t bad. The team around him just isn’t very good.
The team was horrible but he was still able to throw for over 4,000 yds who does that with no 1000 yrd receiver. Everyone could say he threw it in garbage time. The last thing I remember was there is no such thing as that u play until the last whislte blows and thats what cp3 did..
I watched him take a pounding continually trying to “catch up”. In obvious passing situations he was badly protected and he did not quit. I am now a Carson Palmer fan.