The Arizona Cardinals sit atop the NFC West with a 7-1 record and part of the reason has been the stellar play of quarterback Carson Palmer.
In a division with young stud quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick, along with Austin Davis showing flashes in spurts, the question popped up: Who is playing the best at the position in the tough division?
During his Scout's Eye segment on NFL NOW, NFL Media's Daniel Jeremiah said he would take Palmer.
"I make a strong case that Carson Palmer is playing better than any of them this season," the former NFL scout said. "He's been consistent. He's been accurate. He's been able to make plays down the field in clutch moments. He's simply been outstanding. So I would actually give the edge to Carson Palmer in that division."
Jeremiah pointed to the scheme mesh between Palmer's skills and the vertical passing game deployed by coach Bruce Arians.
Palmer threw three touchdowns after an early pick-six Sunday in a road victory over the Dallas Cowboys. The Cardinals' quarterback made an array of throws including a beautiful skinny post for a score to receiver Jaron Brown.
"I don't know anyone who throws that better than Carson Palmer," Jeremiah said, speaking of the skinny post route.
While many in the Bay Area and Upper Northwest might find it blasphemous to consider Palmer's play above Wilson and Kaepernick at any point in time, Palmer leads the division with 277 passing yards per game (8th in the NFL) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (11 to 2).
For further analysis, Pro Football Focus ranks Palmer as their 13th rated quarterback, while the rest of the NFC West signal callers fall outside the top 22 (Wilson 23; Kaepernick 27; Davis 31).
This is not to suggest you'd take Palmer over Wilson or Kaepernick if you were starting a team from scratch -- that's an endless argument for another day. But right now Palmer has his team leading the division with play that the other signal callers have yet to match consistently.
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