The Arizona Cardinals will head into the 2017 with veteran quarterback Carson Palmer leading the offense once again. Palmer confirmed he will return to the team for the 2017 season on Thursday.
And there it is: Carson confirms he's coming back pic.twitter.com/UGJ4OASkRb
— Mark Dalton (@CardsMarkD) February 9, 2017
Palmer joins Larry Fitzgerald, who also recently said he was going to return for at least one more season. The return of these two team leaders takes a huge burden off general manager Steve Keim, who would have had a hard time replacing them if they had called it quits.
The 2016 season wasn’t one of Palmer’s best. He wasn’t protected well, and as a result his 61-percent completion rate was well below his career average. He also threw nine less touchdowns in 2016 (26) compared to the previous year while throwing three more interceptions (14).
The Cardinals must do a better job protecting Palmer, who was never a real mobile quarterback to begin with and most certainly is not these days. Still, with him returning the franchise has a much better chance of making a run at postseason glory than it would have if he had retired. Palmer is set to count $24.1 million against the cap this year and is also on the books for 2018, when his cap figure will rest at $20.6 million.