Philadelphia Eagles must get to Carson Palmer of the Arizona Cardinals

If the Philadelphia Eagles are going to improve to 4-1, they must get to Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer early and often.

The Philadelphia Eagles are more than aware that the NFL is a quarterback-driven league. This doesn’t mean that it’s a ‘passing league,’ which you’ve probably heard before. It simply means that the NFL feels that the only way to increase fan interest is to make sure the points keep burning out scoreboards.

While the Eagles sport Carson Wentz as a young and rising franchise quarterback, the reality to pay attention to going into this Week 5 matchup is that the Arizona Cardinals have a Carson of their own.

Wentz was drafted second-overall by the Eagles in 2016.

But Carson Palmer was drafted even higher in 2003.

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Palmer’s career is winding down, there’s no doubt about that. Also true is the fact that, to this point, his career hasn’t exactly been overflowing with the kind of playoff success that the team that drafted him was hoping for. As a matter of fact, Palmer didn’t win a single postseason contest for the Cincinnati Bengals over his first eight years in the league – Palmer sat his rookie year while the Bengals gave it one more run with Jon Kitna as the starting quarterback.

But Palmer still poses every bit the threat that Wentz does, and then some.

Last year’s success of Wentz, Dak Prescott, and Jared Goff have some comparing these second-year signal callers to other veterans who have done far more during their careers.

Palmer is a three-time Pro Bowl player and also a winner of the Heisman Trophy. Playing at USC was no accident and standing 6’5” gives him superior vision to scan the field. Palmer never had the biggest arm in the league, but he’s got plenty and he still throws a nice deep ball. He’s basically the quintessential franchise quarterback who just never had enough talent surrounding him, until maybe now.

At 2-2, the Cardinals have their share of warts, but veteran savvy and intelligence isn’t one of them. As Palmer will have the services of ageless wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald on Sunday, it’s no stretch to point out that if the Eagles defense and secondary aren’t sharp as nails, this game could definitely go the other way.

I’m expecting to see defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz get creative with some blitz packages to keep the heat on Palmer. Without defensive end Fletcher Cox again this week, it’s going to be important to get to Palmer before he can get a good read on where to go – he certainly will if given the time to do so.

Having said that, Schwartz is fully aware that Palmer runs about as fast as chilled honey in the fridge, so just about any pressure coming up the middle will wreck even the best of game plans drawn up by Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians.

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This week’s game doesn’t feel like a ‘trap’ game to me. This is more like a ‘play with fire’ game. Do it right and this could be a dazzling win.

But mess up and the Philadelphia Eagles could get burnt at The Linc on Sunday.

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