The San Francisco 49ers faced the Arizona Cardinals in Week 5, and Carson Palmer missed the Thursday Night Football game due to a concussion. Drew Stanton started in his place, and while he was ineffective for extended stretches, 49ers miscues set up the Cardinals to roll 33-21.
Palmer only missed the one game, and will be starting in Week 10. Palmer had a career year in 2015, throwing for career highs in passing yards and touchdowns. He fell apart in the playoffs, but the Cardinals looked strong much of the year. This year, Palmer is up-and-down. He is putting up a lot of passing yards, but he is on pace for only 22 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. A year ago his split was 35/11.
I spoke with Seth Cox from Revenge of the Birds to get his thoughts on what is up with Palmer this season. Most of what he said hits the nail on the head pretty well for what non-Cardinals fans have seen. The 49ers pass rush remains a problem, and without Aaron Lynch in the lineup it is not improving for the time being. It will be on the secondary, facing a tough group of wide receivers in Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, and Michael Floyd. The bigger concern is David Johnson and the running game, but in the meantime, there will be plenty to deal with in the passing attack. Thanks to Seth for his thoughts on Palmer this year.
I think it is a couple of things:
1. His arm is not the same. We noted yesterday about the veteran's day off and that has been a common occurrence all year, all the way back to training camp. I think they saw at the end of last season there were some issues with the arm, they may have tried to blame the fractured finger, but it seemed like he was just losing a little of that mustard he was putting on his throws.
2. This is the actual Carson Palmer. You hit the nail on the head, 2015 was his career year. I think it was unfair to expect him to repeat those numbers again since he has only done it one other time over a full season, 2005.
Palmer is a quarterback you can win with, he is in that Joe Flacco range of talent, but he's not an elite talent (insert Joe Flacco joke here) and his top 3 quarterback performance in 2015 should not have been thought of as a sustainable play, especially when you consider his age.
Palmer is still a good quarterback, he can still produce big numbers, but the burden of winning because of Palmer needs to be removed from him, they need to win with Palmer, a strong running game and a great defense.