Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

With the reported trade of Carson Palmer to the Arizona Cardinals, the San Francisco 49ers have a new foe in the NFC West.

While Palmer is not the same quarterback he was back in 2003, when he was the first overall pick in that year’s draft, he definitely makes the Cardinals much better at QB than they were last season. Although, that’s not saying much with Arizona’s quarterback carousel combining for 23 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions last season.

The Cardinals and new head coach Bruce Arias are hoping Palmer is the second coming of Kurt Warner. There are similarities between the two as Palmer is 33 years old, while Warner was 34 when he was traded to Arizona from the New York Giants in 2005. He also has Larry Fitzgerald to throw to. But really, the similarities end there. Palmer does not have the same strong arm that made him so impressive coming out of college and he is an aging quarterback with a bad knee.

It is highly unlikely Palmer will be able to turn around not only the Cardinals, but his career like Warner did in Arizona. The biggest reasons are the Cardinals don’t have the same talent on offense or defense that Warner had when he rejuvenated his career in Arizona by leading them to the Super Bowl. Plus, Palmer does not have the same track record of Warner. In fact, it is worse. He gave up on the Cincinnati Bengals because he didn’t like the direction of the team and threatened to retire. He was then traded to the Oakland Raiders and surprise, surprise he soured on them as well. After going 8-15 as a starter, he realized what everyone else already knew, the Raiders are horrible and they are not getting better anytime soon.

So with Palmer now in the NFC West, I doubt the 49ers are shaking in their boots with the thought of having to face the quarterback twice a year. Despite throwing for over 4,000 yards last season with the Raiders, he is a very average quarterback who gets sacked a lot and who plays just as well as Alex Smith inside the red zone. It is only a matter of time before Palmer sours on the Cardinals, just like he did with the Bengals and Raiders.

In the first installment of our 3 part series around the NFC West I’ll take look at the 1-5 Arizona Cardinals and try and figure out what’s gone wrong in the desert sun. A lot of what we do here on Ninernoise or any sports news outlet is play Monday morning QB, we judge and analyze the decisions made by professionals on something less than 1% of us could ever do in our lives. I love to sit back and say what’s wrong with the 49ers front office? Why won’t we try and trade for Kevin Kolb or Kyle Orton? Well both teams stink and since we’re here to discuss the Cardinals we’ll just stick to Kolb today. The Cards gave up a very good corner back in Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and a second round draft pick for Kolb. That’s not Carson Palmer territory but still a steep price for a QB with a losing record and a lifetime QB rating in the 70′s. Thus far the 49ers decision to pass on Kolb has looked brilliant as he and the entire Arizona Cardinals offense has struggled this season. I chose to begin my look at the Cardinals by keying in on Kolb because he is the biggest reason they are 1-5 right now he has been simply awful.

Since losing Kurt Warner to retirement the Cards have been searching for a franchise QB (sound familiar?). By investing so much in Kolb who signed a 6 year deal worth more than $60 million as part of the trade with the Eagles the Cardinals essentially put all their eggs in Kolb’s basket. Kolb so far this season has performed on par with the way he played in Philadelphia in 6 starts he’s sporting a 78.8 passer rating, 57.7 % accuracy, with as many interceptions as touchdown passes-7. The biggest problem for Arizona at this point will be figuring out what to do next. Where do they go from here? With this much invested in Kolb they can’t give up on him now as the financial ramifications of the decision to acquire him will be felt for many years. Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt recently came out and supported Kolb as his starting QB despite his poor start, a risk, but one he must take given that they are already knee deep and there is no turning back now.

PAGE 2: A LOOK AT THE REST OF THE CARDINALS
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Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer injected his name into NFL news this week by calling for a trade or else he will retire.  With Palmer financially secured for the rest of his life one might think he will follow through on his retirement threat.  We have seen this before with former quarterback Jake Plummer retiring early but how serious is Palmer?  Bengals owner Mike Brown said he will not trade Palmer because he is a big part of the teams plans for rebuilding.  NFL Network’s Michael Lombardi said the 49ers should make a call to inquire about trading for Palmer because his agent David Dunn is a representative for much of the 49ers front office and new head coach Jim Harbaugh.  Lombardi also says to take the Bengals owner at his word when he says he will not trade Palmer. 

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