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Arizona Cardinals fans have been waiting and waiting over the past few days for the trade that would send Carson Palmer from the Oakland Raiders to Arizona to be consumated. It has been called inevitable, but there were apparently some snag that has held things up.
However, there is still reason to believe that the trade will still go through.
According to AZCentral's Kent Somers, Palmer was in Phoenix and had dinner with team executives Monday night, leading one to believe that at some point Palmer will in fact be a member of the Cardinals.
Carson Palmer was in Arizona Monday night, had dinner with #azcardinals execs.
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) April 2, 2013
Sources: deal with#azcardinals not done yet. Positive sign, I would think, that Palmer is in AZ and not for Dbax opener
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) April 2, 2013
Palmer, who threw for over 4000 yards and 22 touchdowns for Oakland last year, is expendable for the Raiders because he is due to make $13 million in salary and the team just acquired Matt Flynn from the Seattle Seahawks. Arizona desperately needs to upgrade at the quarterback position and Palmer certainly is that based on last year's play.
The Cardinals will reportedly will swap late round picks with the Raiders and give up an additional late pick to acquire the quarterback, and Palmer would have to restructure his contract. Numbers that have come out in the media say that Palmer will likely make in the $8 million range rather than the $13M he is due.
How soon will it be before the deal is done? It will have to get done by the time the draft comes around, or at least by Day 3, when the reported picks have to be exchanged. So in a worst case scenario, there are only about three more weeks that there can be with this.
(I chuckled as I typed that...why not?)
In the meantime, go get some popcorn and enjoy the show.
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