Carson Palmer has had a nice long NFL career but the one thing he has not accomplished is playing for a successful franchise. He got his start with the Cincinnati Bengals, but this was before they became a playoff contender.
He went to the Oakland Raiders when they were in the midst of a decade-long playoff drought. He now plays for the Arizona Cardinals, who offer Palmer his best chance of winning. According to Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians, that might be all Palmer needs to earn NFL Hall of Fame mention.
Carson Palmer's stats
Carson Palmer has been playing in the NFL for 14 seasons and the 2017 NFL season with be his 15th.
That is more than a lot of NFL players and he has started for most of those seasons.
With so many years under his belt, Palmer ranks 14th all-time in passing yards and touchdown passes and 13th in completions and attempts.
Five active quarterbacks have more passing yards than Carson Palmer (44,269) and three of them are almost guaranteed Hall of Famers when they retire (Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger). The other two are Eli Manning and Philip Rivers.
If Carson Palmer stays healthy, the only retired quarterbacks after the 2017 season that have more yards will all be Hall of Fame stars. Every retired quarterback with more passing touchdowns than Palmer (285) is in the Hall of Fame as well.
As Bruce Arians said, Palmer has the stats to be a Hall of Fame quarterback.
Arizona winning a championship
While Carson Palmer has the stats, he has never proven to be capable of leading a team to success. That is the biggest blemish on his career. When asked about the thoughts of a Hall of Fame induction one day, Carson said that he never thinks about it.
However, Palmer did say that he thinks about winning a championship "every day."
At the same time, Carson Palmer also said that if he retires without an NFL Championship, it won't define who he is as a man. Palmer said that he won't live his entire life based on what he did while playing football, instead believing that being a good man, husband, and father is more important.
However, at the moment, he really wants to bring a championship to the Arizona Cardinals.
In 2017, Kurt Warner will enter the NFL Hall of Fame and he was the only quarterback to ever lead the Arizona Cardinals to a Super Bowl.
It took Warner a long time to get into the Hall of Fame, despite huge success with the St. Louis Rams. If Carson Palmer can lead the Cardinals to a Super Bowl victory before he retires, there is a good chance he will follow suit.
