Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said early this offseason that he didn’t think the team could afford to take a quarterback early in the draft and General Manager Steve Keim said the team would have to be totally in love with a quarterback to take one with Carson Palmer still on the team, and when you take those comments together it seems unlikely that the Cardinals will be adding a quarterback in the first few rounds.
But it isn’t impossible, something that Palmer knows well after 10 years in the NFL. So while he’d love to see the team add skill position players that can add to the weapons at his disposal, Palmer says he understands if things fall in a way that leads to a new quarterback in Arizona.
“If you are in a position to draft the best player on your board, and that’s the best position to be in as an organization, and [a quarterback] is the best player on the board, you are not only making your team better by creating competition but you are helping out the future,” Palmer said, via the team’s website. “I know I’m not going to play forever. It’s hard for us players to admit that. The older you get the harder it is to admit it. You don’t see it happening. You still feel good, you still feel confident, you still feel healthy. But that’s the reality. That’s the business. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it, whether it irks you or you don’t care. That’s the game.”
It’s a healthy attitude for any player to have because teams are rarely shy about replacing them when they think that it’s best for the organization and that’s probably even more true for a player who has thrown 59 touchdowns and 52 interceptions over the last three seasons. The Cardinals have more pressing needs, which will likely leave any quarterback additions for the middle rounds and that would likely have more immediate impact on Drew Stanton and Ryan Lindley than Palmer.